Beverly Buchanan: Shacks and Legends, 1985-2011

Opening at Andrew Edlin Gallery in New York, curated by Aurélie Bernard Wortsman https://www.edlingallery.com
March 20 – May 1, 2021 

An excerpt from the gallery press release: “A storyteller, Buchanan often attached to her sculptures handwritten or typed narratives, which she referred to as “legends,” that gave voice to a cast of characters, some remembered and others imagined. Sometimes she stapled them to the underside of a piece. In one of her favorite works, Orangeburg County Family House, 1993, Buchanan wrote in Sharpie on the outer sides of the structure the names of families from her hometown which she took from her high school yearbook and a calendar from her local church.”

Most likely it was the summer of 1989 that I took in the Beverly Buchanan exhibit at the Steinbaum Krauss Gallery in New York City’s Soho district. At that point in time, dArt International magazine had barely rounded out its first six months of publishing life. What had impressed me about the work was Buchanan’s “gift of transporting herself to the place where the haziness of time generalizes events.” We believe Buchanan because “…she is her own truth, an embodiment and fruit of the soil that she portrays. The shacks of wood, tar paper, tin, and oil pastel serve as proof of the passage and are convenient emblems of her journey.”

The Spring 1998 edition of dArt, highlighting page 36 with reviews on Beverly Buchanan and Vito Acconci.
The Spring 1998 edition of dArt, highlighting page 36 with reviews on Beverly Buchanan and Vito Acconci.