Beverly McIver: Full Circle is a retrospective exhibition that originated at the Scottdale Museum of Contemporary Art in 2022 and will travel to the Southeast Center for Contemporary Art and the Gibbes Museum in 2023. The original version of the retrospective "included a survey of more than 50 works that demonstrate the diversity of the artist's thematic approach to painting over 25 years," according to curator Kim Boganey. Subsequent versions of the retrospective will vary.
"From early self-portraits in clown makeup to more recent works featuring portraits of others and her own reflections on the COVID-19 pandemic, the exhibition illuminates the arc of McIver's artistic career while also touching on her personal journey. Her self-portraits explore expressions of individuality, stereotypes, and ways of masking identity, while portraits of family members provide glimpses of intimate moments, in good times as well as in illness and death. The exhibition includes McIver's portraits of other artists and notable figures, recent work resulting from a year in Rome with American Academy's Rome Prize, and new work in which McIver explores the juxtaposition of color, pattern, and the human figure.
Kim Boganey, director of Scottsdale Public Art guest curated Beverly McIver: Full Circle, originally for the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA).