Beverly Buchanan

Born 1940 in Fuquay, NC; died 2015 in Ann Arbor, MI

Born in Fuquay, North Carolina, Beverly Buchanan grew up in South Carolina & subsequently earned several university degrees in the sciences before beginning her professional career in New York as a health-care educator. However, about two years later, in 1971, she enrolled at the Art Students League, where she studied with renowned painter Norman Lewis (1909-1979). From that time on, Buchanan devoted her time to making art, eventually moving back to the South. It was here that she developed her practice exploring Southern vernacular architecture. 

Buchanan used found wood scraps or sometimes foam core to build her “shacks,” a term she bestowed upon the sculptures. Whether inhabited or abandoned, her structures were meant to embody the spirit of those who lived there, what she referred to as “emotional groundings.