Everlyn Nicodemus
Everlyn Nicodemus opens her first retrospective exhibition, at National Galleries of Scotland: Modern One in Edinburgh.
About Everlyn Nicodemus
Experience Everlyn’s joyful, defiant and searingly honest artworks, with over 80 drawings, collages, paintings and textiles from the last 40 years of her career through to the present day. Following a 25-year break from painting, Everlyn Nicodemus will unveil a series of new artworks created especially for the exhibition.
Championing a belief that creativity is a form of healing, Everlyn’s work responds to themes such as the global oppression of women, the enduring impact of racism and the artist’s own personal trauma and recovery. Visitors to Everlyn Nicodemus will marvel at her bold and courageous use of colour, form, light and shade, inviting them to explore and question their understanding of identity, belonging and faith. This stirring exhibition was made possible because Everlyn was the recipient of the prestigious Freelands Award in 2022. Presented by Freelands Foundation, the annual prize is gifted in support of women artists underrepresented in their field.
An artist, writer and curator, Everlyn Nicodemus was born in Marangu, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania in 1954. Living and working across Europe since the mid-1970s, Everlyn has made Edinburgh her home for the last fifteen years. Throughout her career, she has taken an active involvement in community life, using her gift of expression to highlight the shared oppression of women. Her pioneering scholarship on African modern art and trauma studies has also informed her practice.
Since the 1980s, Everlyn has made paintings, collages and works on paper that explore violence against women, personal trauma and the isolation and dehumanisation of living within structural racism. Everlyn Nicodemus will chart her career from those early days, with works including her very first painting, After the Birth (1980). At over two metres in length, this oil on bark cloth painting shows a large-scale image of a mother and child, brought to life through swirling, wavy black and white lines against a rich terracotta background. The mother figure is seen protectively placed over the child; however, her face is covered by her hands, her body hunched in a state of recovery. This scene gives a sense of deep emotions such as uncertainty and isolation; the often-unspoken elements of motherhood. Even in her earliest work, Everlyn’s skill as a visual storyteller is clear, compassionately highlighting women’s shared experiences and struggles.
From her earliest work, to the newest, the exciting debut of Everlyn’s new series Lazarus Jacaranda (2022-24) will form a key element of this exhibition, signifying an end to the artist’s 25-year hiatus from painting. While not directly referencing the biblical character in the series’ title, the paintings consider themes of cyclical life and Everlyn’s belief that ‘art is resurrection’. Female figures, both archetypes and named individuals, are shown in relaxed and restful poses, their feet supported by flowers and petals that spring powerfully to life. These paintings have much in common with Everlyn’s earlier artworks, from the colour palette and confident celebration of the female body seen in Silent Strength (1989-90), to the botanical elements present in her largest body of work, The Wedding (1990-94). This marks a resurrection of Everlyn’s own work from the past, influencing her present practice.
This long overdue retrospective focussing on the life and work of Everlyn Nicodemus is a celebration of the compassion, creativity and care which she has led with throughout her 40 years as an artist. Everlyn Nicodemus is waiting to be discovered by new audiences at Modern One this winter.
Visitors to Everlyn Nicodemus can enjoy a free audio tour as part of their experience. Led by Everlyn herself, listeners will be guided around the exhibition as she highlights selected works and delves deeper into her inspirations, experiences and creative process.
Everlyn Nicodemus is accompanied by a generously illustrated catalogue, featuring a new interview with the artist by Perrin Lathrop (Assistant Curator of African Art at Princeton University Art Museum). The book also includes essays from Professor Eddie Chambers (David Bruton, Jr. Centennial Professorship in Art History at the University of Texas at Austin), Catherine de Zegher (curator, modern and contemporary art historian), and Stephanie Straine (curator of the exhibition at the National Galleries of Scotland).
Image: Everlyn Nicodemus, Silent Strength 38, 1990. Copyright the Artist
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