Born 1940, Fuquay, NC
Died 2015, Ann Arbor, MI
Born in Fuquay, North Carolina, Beverly Buchanan (1940-2015) grew up in South Carolina. By the late 1960s, Buchanan had earned several university degrees in the sciences, and was working as a public health worker and educator in New York City and East Orange, New Jersey.
In 1971, Buchanan enrolled at the Art Students’ League, where she studied with Harlem Renaissance painter Norman Lewis. From that time on, Buchanan devoted her time to making art. In the 1970s, she considered herself an abstract expressionist painter and completed a series of “Wall” paintings which were exhibited at the Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey in 1976.
In 1977, Buchanan moved back to the South. From 1979 to 1986, Buchanan made a series of public stone sculptures across the American Southeast, which she allowed to decay over time and become part of the surroundings. Most notably, in 1979 she completed Ruins and Rituals (also the title of the Brooklyn Museum retrospective from 2016-2017), and in 1980 Marsh Ruins, with funding from a Guggenheim Fellowship. Some of these works can still be found, while others have withered away. They contemplate the idea of “ruination” and commemorate the history of Southern Black communities.
By the mid 1980s, Buchanan was exploring Southern vernacular architecture through her practice. She created a series of makeshift sculptures known as “shacks” in which she paid tribute to the improvised and self-built homes of Black communities in rural Georgia. Often attached to her sculptures were hand-written or typed narratives, which she referred to as “legends,” that gave voice to a cast of characters, some remembered and others imagined.
Buchanan’s later work is intimately linked to her natural surroundings and folk art. As a native Southerner, she drew on memories from her childhood as well as the lush Georgian landscape and yard art of local self-taught artists. A passionate gardener, Buchanan produced vivid oil pastel flower drawings and small assemblage works.
The winner of numerous honors during her long career, including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, Buchanan’s work is in the permanent collections of the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Whitney Museum, among others. A posthumous solo retrospective, Ruins and Rituals, curated by Jennifer Burris and Park McArthur, was held at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 2016-17.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2026
Ruination and Regeneration: The Art of Beverly Buchanan, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
2025
Beverly Buchanan: Weathering, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, DE; Frac Lorraine, Metz, FR; Spike Island, Bristol, GB (traveling tour through 2027)
2024
Collection 1980s – Present, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Beverly Buchanan: I Broke the House, gta exhibitions, ETH Zurich, CH; Fisk University Galleries, Nashville, TN (traveling tour through 2025)
2023
Beverly Buchanan: The idea was to capture something closely related to a feeling, Gund Gallery, Gambier, OH
Beverly Buchanan: Northern Walls and Southern Yards, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
2021
Beverly Buchanan: Shacks and Legends, 1985-2011, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
2016
Beverly Buchanan: Ruins and Rituals, 1976-2013, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Spelman Fine Art Museum, Spelman College, Atlanta, GA
2012
The Art of Beverly Buchanan, N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, Detroit, MI
2011
Beverly Buchanan: Home Place, Barbara Archery Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2009
Response and Memory, Asheville Art Museum, NC; Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA
2006
Beverly Buchanan: Recent Work, Mary Pauline Gallery, Augusta, GA
2005
Beverly Buchanan: Southern Saddlebags and Shotgun Houses, Lane Hall, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
2000
Beverly Buchanan ‐ 6th Annual Masters Series, City Gallery East, Bureau of Cultural Affairs, Atlanta, GA
1998
Beverly Buchanan: Home is a Magnet, Steinbaum Krauss Gallery, New York, NY
1997
Beverly Buchanan, Art Museum of Missoula, Missoula, MT
Beverly Buchanan, The Rural South: Drawings and Sculptures, Opelika Arts Gallery, Opelika, AL; Auburn University, Auburn, AL
Beverly Buchanan, McIntosh Gallery, Atlanta, GA
1996
Beverly Buchanan, Visual Witnessing: Portraits of Shacks and Their Yards, Steinbaum Krauss Gallery, New York, NY
Beverly Buchanan, Spirit Square Center for the Arts and Education, Charlotte, NC
Beverly Buchanan, Tubman African American Museum, Macon, GA
1994
Beverly Buchanan: ShackWorks, A 16 Year Survey, mid-career retrospective hosted by The Montclair Museum of Art, Montclair, NJ; Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI; The Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, New York, NY; Smith College Art Museum, Northampton, MA; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE; Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC; Sharadin Art Gallery, Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA; Edison Community College Gallery of Fine Art, Fort Meyers, FL; Brenau University Galleries, Gainesville, GA; Chattahoochee Valley Art Museum, LaGrange, GA (traveling tour through 1996)
1993
Beverly Buchanan, Drawings and Sculpture: Does the Poverty of Material Things Necessitate the Poverty of Will and Spirit?, Steinbaum Krauss Gallery, New York, NY
1992
Beverly Buchanan: In Celebration of Improvisational Architecture, Schering-Plough Headquarters, Madison, NJ
Beverly Buchanan, Three Rivers Arts Festival, Pittsburgh, PA
Beverly Buchanan (Parameters 7), The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA
Beverly Buchanan, Jacksonville Art Museum, Jacksonville, FL
1991
Beverly Buchanan: Drawings, Sculptures, Legends, Photography, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, New York, NY
Beverly Buchanan: In Celebration of the Shack, Hoffman Gallery, Oregon School of Arts and Crafts, Portland, OR
Beverly Buchanan, Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
1990
A Celebration of the Architecture of the Shack in Two and Three Dimensions, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, New York, NY
Beverly Buchanan, Phyllis Rothman Gallery, Fairleigh Dickenson University, Madison, NJ
Beverly Buchanan, Museum of Arts and Sciences, Macon, GA
1989
Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art and Sculpture Garden, Winston-Salem, NC
1987
Heath Gallery, Inc., Atlanta, GA
1986
Heath Gallery, Inc., Atlanta, GA
1982
University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL
1981
Kornblee Gallery, New York, NY
Heath Gallery, Inc., Atlanta, GA
1978
Truman Gallery, New York, NY
1977
Mercer University, Macon, GA
1975
Cinque Gallery, New York, NY
1974
Upsala College, East Orange, NJ
1972
Cinque Gallery, New York, NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025
Counter History, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
So Long Bowery, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
In a dark time, the eye begins to see, curated by Robert Cozzolino, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
2024
Edges of Ailey, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
American Art, Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY
Silver Linings: Celebrating the Spelman Art Collection, Spelman College Museum of Fine Arts, Atlanta, GA; University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI; Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID; Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL; Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN
Looking Back: The 14th White Columns Annual, curated by Randy Kennedy, White Columns, NY
Queer Histories, São Paulo Museum of Art, BR
2023
Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Vancouver Art Gallery, B.C.
Inheritance, curated by Rujeko Hockley, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Groundswell: Women of Land Art, curated by Dr. Leigh A. Arnold, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX
Calling, curated by Kathrin Bentele, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, DE
So let us all be citizens too, curated by Ebony L. Haynes, David Zwirner, London, UK
2022
feel rubble, curated by NYU Gallatin, Governors Island, New York, NY
Dead Lecturer/Distant Relative, curated by Genji Amino, Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY
The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse, organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR
Toni Morrison’s Black Book, curated by Hilton Als, David Zwirner, New York, NY
2021
Knowledge of the Past Is the Key to the Future, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Memories and Inspiration: The Kerry and C. Betty Davis Collection of African American Art, International Arts and Artists, Washington, DC
The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture and the Sonic Impulse, curated by Valerie Cassel Oliver, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
Dream Monuments: Drawing in the 1960s and 1970s, curated by Erica DiBenedetto and Kelly Montana, Menil Drawing Institute, TX
Now Is The Time: Recent Acquisitions to the Contemporary Collection, Baltimore Museum of Art, MD
2020
Out of Place: A Feminist Look at the Collection, curated by Catherine Morris and Carmen Hermo, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
2019
You Can’t Win: Jack Black’s America, curated by Randy Kennedy, the Fortnight Institute, New York, NY
2017
Room, Sadie Coles HQ, London, UK
POWER, Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles, CA
We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965 - 65, curated by Catherine Morris, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
2016
Southern Accent: Seeking The American South in Contemporary Art, Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, NC; Speed Museum of Art, Louisville, KY
2015
THIS MUST BE THE PLACE, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
2014
Haunts and Habitats, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
When the Stars Begin to Fall: Imagination and the American South, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
2011
Mixing Metaphors: The Aesthetic, the Social and the Political in African American Art, Carter Presidential Museum in Atlanta, GA
Beverly Buchanan & Lillian Blades, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA
2010
BEWARE: Women Working at Flomenhaft’s, Flomenthaft Gallery, New York, NY
Recollection: The Past Is Present, Cameron Art Museum, Wilmington, NC
2009
Collected. Propositions on the Permanent Collection, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, MD
2007
Back to the Future: Contemporary American Art from the Collection, Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst, MA
African American Artists in South Carolina: Selections from the State Art Collection, City Hall, Gaffney, SC
A Pink Curator Chooses Black Art: What's In a Color?, Flomenhaft Gallery, New York, NY
2004
Common Ground: Discovering Community in 150 Years of Art, Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC
2002
Crossing the Divide: African American Art at the Turn of the Century, Gallery One, Washtenaw Community College, Ann Arbor, MI
2001
Reconstructing Eden: Looking at the Contemporary American Landscape, Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, NC
2000
Beverly Buchanan & Tony Griffin, Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, NC
1999
The Comforts of Home, Hand Workshop Art Center, Richmond, VA
From Your House to Our House, Nexus Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA
The Invisible Inner City, Art Museum of Western Virginia, Roanoke, VA
Re/Righting History, Counternarratives by Contemporary African American Artists, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY
1998
The Moore's Ford Memorial Art Exhibition, Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation, Watkinsville, GA
Resonant Forms: Contemporary African American Women Sculptors, Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C.
Selections from Soho's Steinbaum Krauss Gallery, Fort Lewis College Art Gallery, Durango, CO
Group exhibition, Steinbaum Krauss Gallery, New York, NY
Coming Off the Wall, The Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA
1997
Point of View, Spruill Center for the Arts, Atlanta, GA
Text and Identity, Twelve Women/Twelve Artists, University Art Gallery, Staller Center for the Arts, State University at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY
Brenau University National Invitational, Brenau University Galleries, Gainesville, GA
1996
Bearing Witness: Contemporary Works by African American Women Artists, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art (traveling tour through 1999)
Woman's Work: A Century of Achievement in American Art, The Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA
African American Women Artists, Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar, VA
Aspects of African American Art, Walsh Library Gallery, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ
The Atrium Gallery, Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, Warren, NJ
9 Women in Georgia, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C.
The Swan Coach Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Beyond the Boundaries, Jimmy Carter Library, Atlanta, Georgia
1995
Universe of Meaning, Brattleboro Museum of Art, Brattleboro, VT
Photogenetic: Women Artists of Color Re-Viewing the Lens of History, Street Level Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland (traveling tour through June 1996)
Making Faces: American Portraits, Hudson River Museum of Westchester, Yonkers, NY
In Three Dimensions: Women Sculptors of the 90's: Part I, Issues of Gender, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY
1994
House and Home: Spirits of the South, the work of Beverly Buchanan, Max Belcher, and William Christenberry, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA; Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA, Morris Museum, Augusta, GA; Duke University Museum of Art, Durham, NC; Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL (traveling tour through 1996)
Memories of Childhood... so we're not the Cleavers or the Brady Bunch, Steinbaum Krauss Gallery, New York, NY
Empowerment: The Art of African American Artists, Krasdale Foods and Lehman College Art Gallery, New York, NY
House Sweet House, New Jersey Center for Visual Arts, Summit, NJ
Sharing the Dream, Sangre de Cristo Arts & Conference Center, Pueblo, CO; The College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM; Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA
Town & Country, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Plural America*Singular Journey, The Art Guild, Farmington, CT
1993
93 Holiday Greetings & Wishes for 1994, Steinbaum Krauss Gallery, New York, NY
The Black Family, The Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI
Dolls In Contemporary Art: Metaphors of Personal Identity, The Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI
Multicultural Americana, Florida Community College at Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL
Highlights, Contemporary Art Collection of Brown-Forman Corporation, Actors Theatre of Louisville, KY
Women’s Art, Women's Lives, Women's Issues, Tweed Gallery, New York, NY and New York City Commission on the Status of Women
The Paul R. Jones Collection: African American Art, University Gallery, University of Delaware, Newark, DE
1992
Conflict and Transcendence: African American Art in South Carolina, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
Present Tense, University of Wisconsin, Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
The Art & Architectural Perspectives of Three Southern Artists, Madison-Morgan Cultural Center, Madison, GA
30th Annual Group Exhibition: Major 20th Century Artists, Foster Harmon Galleries of American Art, Sarasota, FL
Women with a Concern, Mary Mount Manhattan Gallery, New York, NY
1991
43rd Annual American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, Purchase Exhibition, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
Bertoia, Buchanan, Edwards, Mitchell: Sculpture Update, The Diggs Gallery, Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem, NC
Broadening the Collection, Roland Gibson Gallery, SUNY Potsdam College, Potsdam, NY
Other Voices: Mediating Between Ethnic Traditions and the Modernist Mainstream, The Baxter Gallery, Portland School of Art, Portland, ME
Statements of Heritage: Variant American Visions, South Carolina State Museum, Columbia, SC
Spotlight on Georgia Artists X, The Trinity School, Atlanta, GA
Living Space: Interior, Exterior, Alijra, Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, NJ
A Sense of Place, Montgomery Museum of Fine Art, Montgomery, AL
Vital Signs: An Exhibition of Art in Atlanta, Nexus Gallery, Atlanta, GA
African American Works on Paper from the Cochran Collection, New Visions Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Insights, Arno Maris Gallery, Westfield State College, Westfield, MA
1990
American Resources II, Stein Gallery, Tampa, FL
10 African American Women Artists, Holman Hall Gallery, Trenton State College, Trenton, NJ
Active Cultures Part I, Firehouse Gallery, Nassau Community College, Garden City, NY
Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner, The Mississippi Three: The Struggle Continues, Soho 20, New York, NY
Next Generation, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC
Lift Every Voice: Atlanta's Black Artistic Heritage, Atlanta Historical Society, Atlanta, GA
The Decade Show, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
New History: Sculptural Installations, Atlanta College of Art, Woodruff Arts Center, Atlanta, GA
Diversity of Vision, Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Sculptor's Drawings, East Hampton Center for Contemporary Art, East Hampton, NY
Contemporary Art of The African Diaspora, University Art Gallery, SUNY Albany, Albany, NY
Art on Paper, Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, NC
1989
Social Studies, University Galleries, Illinois State University, Normal, IL
A Woman's Place, Erector Square Gallery, New Haven, CT
Atlanta/New York, Axis Twenty, Atlanta, GA
On and Off Your Rocker, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, New York, NY
Alice, and look who else: Through the Looking Glass, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, New York, NY
Ann Reed Gallery, Ketchum, Idaho
American Resources: Selected Works of African American Artists, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery New York, NY
Contemporary African American Artists, Downtown Arts Gallery at Church Street Centre, Nashville, TN
Albright Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Contemporary Women Drawers, Hillwood Art Gallery, C.W. Post, Long Island University, Brookville, NY
1988
Spectacles, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
The Family in Contemporary Art, Nexus, Philadelphia, PA
Southern Expressions: A Sense of Self, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
Influences from the Untaught: Contemporary Drawings, Drawing Center, New York, NY
100 Drawings by Women, Hillwood Art Gallery, Long Island University, Brookville, NY
Winston-Salem State University Fine Arts Gallery, Winston-Salem, NC
Contemporary Artists in Georgia: Selections from the High Museum’s Collection, High Museum, Atlanta, GA
Women of Color, National Artists Book Project, Houston, TX
Artists in Georgia: 1988, Nexus Contemporary Art, Atlanta, GA
1987
small scale sculpture LARGE SCALE SCULPTURE, The Atlanta College of Art and Colony Square, Atlanta, GA
Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Atlanta Biennial, Nexus, Inc., Atlanta, GA
Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, NC
Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA
Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC
1986
Born in North Carolina, Jerald Melberg Gallery, Charlotte, NC
Harris Brown Gallery, Boston, MA
1985
Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, NC
1984
African American Art in Atlanta: Public & Corporate Collections, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
Kornblee Gallery, New York, NY
1982
Sculptural Arts Museum, Atlanta, GA
Ritual and Myth: A Survey of African American Art, Studio Museum of Harlem, New York, NY
Beaver College, Glenside, PA
1980
The Dialectics of Isolation: Third World Women Artists of the U.S., A.I.R. Gallery, New York, NY
Maquettes, Robeson Gallery, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ
1977
Truman Gallery, New York, NY
1976
Beverly Buchanan and Ann Reppa: City Walls, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ
1975
Cinque Gallery, New York, NY
1973
Cinque Gallery, New York, NY
The Silvermine Guild, New Canaan, CT
1971
The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
1963
The Staten Island Museum, New York, NY
HONORS & AWARDS
2011
Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award
2005
College Art Association Achievement Award
2003
Visiting Artist, Spring Island, SC
2002
Anonymous Was A Woman Award, Anonymous Was A Woman, New York, NY
199 Georgia Women in the Visual Arts Honoree, The Georgia Commission on Women and the Georgia Women's History Month Committee
1997
National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO)
Distinguished Alumni Citation Award, Bennett College
1994
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in sculpture
The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award
1980
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC
The Art Galleries at Black Studies, University of Texas at Austin, TX
The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA
Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, GA
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
Los Angeles County Museum, CA
Mead Art Museum, Amherst, MA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
The Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN
The Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ
Morris Museum of Southern Art, Augusta, GA
Muscarelle Museum of Art, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA
Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, QC
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Museum of Modern Art, NY
The Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV
Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
Pennsylvania Museum of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL
The Museum of Arts and Sciences, Macon, GA
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY