“THE PAINTINGS HOLD UP A MIRROR TO WHOEVER THE VIEWER IS. IF YOU ARE COMING TO THE PAINTING AND YOU LOOK AT IT AND YOU CAN'T GO BEYOND THE SURFACE, OR THE COLOR, THE LUSCIOUSNESS OF THE PAINT, THEN YOU CAN STOP THERE, BUT IF YOU WANT TO GO DEEPER...YOU CAN GET THAT TOO.”
Moving from blunt rebellion to unsettling parody to effusive celebration, Beverly McIver's portraits offer a candid look at the artist's upbringing in the American south and her ongoing journey to self-fulfilment. McIver filters her theoretical critiques and personal reflections through a cast of characters — typically versions of herself and her loved ones — that each come alive inside McIver's painted cinematic universe. Even while grappling with themes of racial violence, severe disability, and cyclical grief, McIver's vibrant paintings center the triumphs of self-acceptance and the endurance of human connection.
Born in a housing project in a still-segregated Greensboro, North Carolina, McIver was raised in a single-parent household. She was not introduced to her father, who she would later take care of in his final stages of life, until age 17. Her mother worked tirelessly to support McIver and her two sisters, one of whom, Renee, was born with a developmental disability and will never function beyond the level of a third-grader.
McIver earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Painting and Drawing from North Carolina Central University and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting and Drawing from Pennsylvania State University. She earned her BA in Painting and Drawing from North Carolina Central University and her MFA from Pennsylvania State University.
In 2022, McIver's work was featured in the traveling survey exhibition "Full Circle" at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. She is currently a Professor of the Practice in Studio Arts at Duke University and has held a yearlong residency at the American Academy in Rome. McIver is also the subject of the Emmy®-nominated HBO documentary "Raising Renee," which follows McIver's journey to fulfill a commitment to take care of her sister after her mother's death.
McIver's work is held in instituional collections including the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia; the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.; the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina; the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina; and the Baltimore Museum of Art in Maryland.