20 October 2012 - 6 January 2013

Mint Museum Uptown

at Levine Center for the Arts

"All of my portraits are self-portraits.

I use the faces of others to reflect my most inner being."

- Beverly McIver

Renee Moving Away, 2011 Oil on Canvas, 48 x 48 Courtesy of Beverly McIver	Renee as an Angel, 2008 Oil on Canvas, 48 x 48 Courtesy of Beverly McIver	Truly Grateful, 2011 Oil on Canvas, 30 x 30 Courtesy of Beverly McIver

Reflections: Portraits by Beverly McIver celebrates the last decade of Beverly McIver's work with the presentation of 14 works. A native of North Carolina, McIver is renowned for her expression-filled, emotive canvasses that commemorate her life and the lives of those closest to her, particularly her late mother, Ethel, and mentally disabled sister, Renee.  This exhibition, organized by the North Carolina Museum of Art, will focus exclusively on these self-portraits and portraits of her family members.  Widely acknowledged as a significant presence in contemporary American art, McIver examines racial, gender and social identities through the lens of her own experiences as an African American female artist. By incorporating the history of her family, especially the struggles surrounding her sister's disability and her mother's death, into her work, McIver contemplates and illustrates the complicated emotions that arise from these situations.  The documentary film Raising Renee about McIver and her sister will be shown at the Mint Museum Uptown on Tuesday, November 20, 2012 and the artist herself will speak at the Mint on Tuesday, November 27, 2012. Both events are free.

Online Resources

• Artist's website.
• Radio interview with McIver - "NC Painter Speaks About Loss, Caregiving and Family" - from WFAE 90.7 
• NY Times article on McIver and the HBO documentary Raising Renee. 
• Article on McIver's life, work and her recent film, Raising Renee, from Indy Week.
• Feature on McIver from the Raleigh News & Observer. 
• Additional exhibition information from the North Carolina Museum of Art where it opened on December 11, 2011. 
• Images of artwork and biography from Pacini Lubel Gallery. 
• New York Times' Art in Review piece on one of the artist's exhibitions. 
• WUNC Public Radio report on Raising Renee with both transcript and audio. 
• Raising Renee Official Site. 
• Article on McIver's 'Life is Good' exhibition from Arizona State University's Daily Wildcat newspaper. 
• Feature on "Reflections" and McIver's style and influences as an artist from Qcitymetro

Selected Print Resources Available in The Mint Museum Library 

• McIver, Beverly. Reflections: Portraits by Beverly McIver. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2011. (Exhibition Catalog).
• Raising Renee a promise is a promise. Directed by Jeanne Jordan and Steven Ascher. United States: West City Films, 2012. DVD.
• "The Postmodern Modernist: Robert Colescott (1925-2009)." Art in America. September 2009.
• "Report From Arizona, Not A Mirage." Art in America. December 2002.
• Wasley, Paula. "Behind the Makeup." ARTnews. 2006.

Organized by the North Carolina Museum of Art, this exhibition is made possible, in part, by the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources; the North Carolina Museum of Art Foundation, Inc.; and the William R. Kenan Jr. Endowment for Educational Exhibitions. 

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Created by Nicole Jacobson, Intern for the Mint Museum Library