*Photo above: Beverly McIver, Timothy, oil on canvas, 2015. Image courtesy the artist

January 17- February 12, 2017

Reception and artist talk Tuesday, January 17th, 6-8pm

"I am inspired by people who live their authentic lives. That's something I aspire to do."- Beverly McIver

In her recent body of figurative work, painter Beverly McIver uses her deft hand and rich palette to frankly and intimately portray the men in her life. Lived relationships emerge in portraits of her father, of close relatives, and friends. What also emerges is an emotionally honest and specific representation of Black masculinity.

About the Artist

Beverly McIver has been the Esbenshade Professor of the Practice of Visual Arts at Duke University since 2014. She 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 she received an Honorary Doctorate from North Carolina Central University. In 2012 she was a Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation fellow, a John Simon Guggenheim fellow, and has received a Creative Capital grant and the Louis Comfort Tiffany award, among others. McIver has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions and has been included in many group exhibitions. Originally from Greensboro, North Carolina, the artist currently lives and works in Durham.

About 12 x 12

12 x 12 artist salon series presents 12 artists from North Carolina, the 12th State. Each Salon is a pop-up exhibition and conversation with the artist. The series schedule consists of three exhibitions per spring and fall seasons in 2016 and 2017, beginning March 1st, 2016. At the end of the salons, a group exhibition in our Potter Gallery will bring together all twelve artists.

The twelve artists in the series represent a diversity of artistic practices and cultural backgrounds. At salon events, each artist will share ideas and processes of their studio practice in the midst of recent, new, or site-specific work presented in SECCA's Preview Gallery. Each artist will discuss their experience first-hand, inviting the public to ask questions and to engage in conversation. Like a studio visit, these salon events are a social space for the discovery and discussion, providing invaluable feedback to artists and insights to those who come to experience them.

12 x 12 gives artists from across North Carolina a public platform for continued artistic development and recognition in the place where they live and work, and beyond. At the same time, the series aims to push conversation around contemporary art forward and to consider the significance of localism as a curatorial framework. What does it mean to these artists to be working in the South and Southeast today, especially after the Internet and Globalization?

The 12 x 12 artists were selected by Cora Fisher (Curator of Contemporary Art, SECCA) and four guest jurors: Linda Dougherty (Chief Curator & Curator of Contemporary Art, North Carolina Museum of Art); Lia Newman (Director and Curator of the Van Every/Smith Galleries at Davidson College); Marshall Price (Nancy Hanks Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University); and Mary Anne Redding (Curator, Turchin Center for the Visual Arts).

An arts initiative sponsored by the Flow Foundation