Beverly McIver’s body of work is decidedly autobiographical, consisting of portraits of friends, family, and herself. As she once explained: “I try to face whatever is going on in my life, joyful or painful, through my paintings. I express myself with brushstrokes. It’s how I process my happiness or grief, and how I communicate with the world.” The likenesses are mostly close-up views, closely cropped, presented in rich colors with a lot of black, and painted with a loaded brush.
Beverly Jean McIver was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, and did not know her biological father until she was in her teens. Years later, he became one of her primary models especially after she became his caregiver. Her mentally disabled sister Renee was the subject of a documentary that was aired on HBO. In high school, which was largely attended by affluent white students, McIver joined the clowning club. Wearing make-up and a wig, she became a different person: “As a clown…I was transformed, and in many ways more acceptable to society. No one cared that I was black or poor. I was embraced.”
In 1987 McIver earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from North Carolina Central University in Durham; at one time it was known as the North Carolina College for Negroes, and by the 1920s it was the country’s first state-supported liberal arts college for African Americans. Following her bachelor's degree, McIver pursued a Master of Fine Arts degree at Pennsylvania State University in University Park, completed in 1992.
Between 1996 and 2007, McIver was a professor at Arizona State University in Tempe, a school which originated as a “territorial normal school,” or a teacher training school, before Arizona became a state. In 2001 she held a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and the following year became a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Returning to her alma mater in 2007, she became SunTrust Endowed Professor of Art at North Carolina Central University, a position she held for seven years. That same year the university gave her an honorary degree. She spent the summers of 2000, 2007, and 2016 at YADDO, a nonprofit retreat for artists in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission was “to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists without interruption in a supportive environment.” She also served on the YADDO board from 2006 to 2020.
In 2014, McIver joined the faculty at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, as Professor of the Practice of Art, Art History & Visual Studies. During the academic year 2017/2018 she was a resident at the American Academy in Rome, Italy. Speaking of her experience there she said that “Italy—outwardly spectacular, with its mysterious quality of light—gave me the gift of being able to hear my inner voice loud and clear. … [As] a person of color, in the historic heart of western civilization, I felt invisible.” In connection with a 2022 exhibition called Passage, McIver declared: “These paintings tell my story over time. I try to live with intent, examining everything … and to share my experience honestly. Life is not easy, nor fair. It’s a journey that requires flexibility and courage. It requires nurturing. … Art is a celebration of our struggles and differences. Art gives me hope.”