EVERLYN NICODEMUS AT WIELS

WIELS joins forces with the National Galleries of Scotland to present a retrospective exhibition of Everlyn Nicodemus, with over eighty works spanning four decades of a compelling artistic career.

Black Bird borrows its title from a yet-unpublished manuscript written by Nicodemus, invoking the poetry and the rich imagery that her work invites us to navigate. Through a playful use of colour, texture and form, Nicodemus opens up new horizons of artistic exploration in response to the global oppression of women, the profound impact of racism and her personal trauma and recovery. 

Nicodemus' research on African Modern Art has been deeply influential in offering new understandings of artistic genealogies that were widely understudied and misrepresented in the Western canon. Her artwork inscribes itself in this lineage, through which she cultivates a singular language of abstraction and figuration that embraces her own experience and runs parallel to the rhythms of life.

Whether it is through paintings, collages, essays, textiles or poetry, Everlyn Nicodemus’ work is rooted in a longstanding engagement towards art as a site for healing and freedom beyond individual expression.

This survey exhibition presents a wide range of works, from her very first experimentations on bark cloth to her latest drawings on paper, attesting to the artist’s bold and vibrant style that always refused the conformity of existing frames.