About the Artist

Beverly McIver is widely acknowledged as a significant presence in contemporary American art and has charted new directions as an artist. She has accumulated more awards and honors than many artists receive in a lifetime, which she pays forward by teaching younger generations about the power of art and the hard work it takes to make it a career. There are numerous artists today who credit McIver for their professional achievements. McIver is also Professor of the Practice of Art, Art HIstory, & Visual Studies at Duke University, and prior to this appointment, she taught at Arizona State University for 12 years.

McIver was born and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina, as one of three daughters—including her sister, Renee, who has developmental disabilities—of a single mother who worked multiple domestic jobs to make ends meet. She eventually received a BA in Painting and Drawing from North Carolina Central University and a MFA in Painting and Drawing from Pennsylvania State University. In 2007, her undergraduate alma mater bestowed her with an honorary doctorate. Her career as a painter are reminders to herself and her audience of the journey she endured in order to understand the many aspects that collectively shape her identity. The images are also powerful statements about larger issues that affect and challenge everyone, including stereotypes, self-acceptance, family, otherness, illness, death and, ultimately, freedom to express one’s individuality.

In 2022, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art debuted a survey exhibition of McIver’s work, titled Full Circle, which subsequently traveled to the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (Winston Salem, NC) and the Gibbes Museum (Charleston, SC.). The exhibit was accompanied by a hardcover catalog published by the University of California Press.

McIver’s work can be found in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian, the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Weatherspoon Art Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Nelson Fine Arts Center Art Museum at Arizona State University, and the Mint Museum, to name a few. Recent honors include election to the 2024 class of National Academicians with New York’s National Academy of Design, and a yearlong residency at the American Academy in Rome (2017), where she was featured in Beverly McIver: e il colore nero, a documentary for Italian television. In 2017, she received the lifetime achievement award from the Anyone Can Fly Foundation in a ceremony hosted by Faith Ringgold. McIver was named one of the “Top Ten in Painting” in Art in America in 2011.

Raising Renee—a feature-length documentary film produced in association with HBO by Academy Award-nominated and award-winning filmmakers Steven Ascher and Jeanne Jordan—tells the story of McIver’s promise to care for Renee when their mother dies. The film played in festivals around the country, was nominated for an Emmy® for Outstanding Arts and Culture Programming, and is now available on Amazon Prime.