ATHENS, GA.- The Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia presents “Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone” this fall from August 8, 2026, to January 3, 2027. Referred to as a “must-see” exhibition by the Art Newspaper and “an act of reclamation” by Art in America, the first major retrospective exhibition of the work of the acclaimed 19th-century Black and Indigenous sculptor presents approximately 30 sculptures by Lewis from public and private collections across the United States and abroad. Additional objects in a range of media give visitors an opportunity to learn about Lewis’ mastery of marble and her remarkable life.
“Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone” is co-organized by the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia and the Peabody Essex Museum. Major support is provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Henry Luce Foundation and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art. Additional support is provided by Traditional Fine Arts Organization.
Born in Greenbush, New York, in 1844, Lewis became the first sculptor of Afro-Caribbean and Anishinaabe descent to achieve widespread international acclaim. Her mother was Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, an Anishinaabe nation in present-day Ontario, and was known for her creativity in weaving and embroidery; her father was a free Black man who may have worked as a gentleman’s servant. Orphaned as a child, Lewis was raised by maternal aunts who profoundly inspired her as an artist, teaching her how to work with birch bark and porcupine quills, craft textiles and moccasins and use a range of materials to tell stories.
At age 19, Lewis met the abolitionist Frederick Douglass at Oberlin College in Ohio. He recognized her artistic talent and encouraged her to “seek the East.” She began her artistic career in Boston, which was a hotbed of antislavery activism when she arrived in 1863. Here, Lewis thought, was a place to stake her claim as a Black artist with a powerful point of view. The young artist quickly set up a downtown studio and connected with the city’s most prominent artists and patrons, forming networks of support with social reformers and abolitionists. Her initial artistic successes came from creating small portrait medallions of famous American abolitionists, artworks that were popular during the Civil War.
Lewis traveled to Rome in late 1865 to join the leading American sculptors of her generation. There, she continued her commitment to the antislavery cause with works like “Forever Free,” the first sculpture by a Black artist in the United States to celebrate emancipation. Alongside a vibrant community of expatriate women artists, she also helped craft a feminist approach to neoclassical sculpture. Her most ambitious sculpture, “The Death of Cleopatra,” showed the Egyptian queen defiant in the face of bondage, celebrating female self-determination and the artist’s own fierce independence. Her plaster portraits and vivid, naturalistic stone sculptures depict powerful women, social reformers, Native individuals and religious figures. Through these classically inspired sculptures, Lewis elevated contemporary stories of emancipation, Indigenous sovereignty and religious liberty.
“Edmonia Lewis was a pioneer who used sculpture to champion the independence and humanity of Black and Indigenous people at a time when they were often denied both,” said Shawnya L. Harris, co-curator of the exhibition and Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator of African American and African Diasporic Art at the Georgia Museum of Art. “By bringing these sculptures together, we aren’t just looking at history; we are rediscovering a legacy of courage and self-determination. Lewis found a way to tell her own story in the face of great obstacles through the work of her hands.”
The exhibition underscores themes of community, reform and resilience and looks at the lifelong impact of both Black activism and Indigenous community on her sculpture practice. “Sometimes the times were dark and the outlook was lonesome, but where there is a will, there is a way,” Lewis recalled in 1878. “That is what I tell my people whenever I meet them, that they must not be discouraged, but work ahead until the world is bound to respect them for what they have accomplished.”
The breadth of Lewis’ life’s work, her wide-ranging networks and her long-standing influence also emerge through photographs, decorative objects, Indigenous belongings, literature, 19th- and 20th-century art and contemporary works by the London-based interdisciplinary artist Gisela Torres and Serpent River Ojibwa installation artist Bonnie Devine. In-gallery videos and digital interactives engage Lewis’ story with a variety of audiences, while collaborations with Black and Native scholars have deepened understanding of Lewis’ life and work through shared storytelling, dialogue and collective reflection.
Following her death, Lewis’ legacy endured in Black communities, yet her contribution to American sculpture has largely been underrecognized. Some of her great masterpieces were rediscovered decades later, while others remain lost. “Said in Stone” features several sculptures by Lewis that have never been exhibited before, along with cutting-edge research that brings to light previously unknown details of her life and career. A richly illustrated accompanying catalogue, published by the University of Chicago Press, is available for purchase in the Museum Shop. The exhibition opened at the Peabody Essex Museum earlier in 2026 and will travel to the North Carolina Museum of Art April 3 – July 11, 2027.
