RALEIGH, N.C.- Reflections: Portraits by Beverly McIver is an exhibition celebrating McIver’s prodigious work from the past decade, highlighting her renowned, emotive self-portraits and portraits of her family. Opening December 11, 2011 in the North Carolina Gallery, the exhibition will be free to the public and on view through June 24, 2012.

“Beverly McIver’s work is remarkable in its own right, but the timing of Reflections with Rembrandt in America is particularly illuminating, as both exhibitions examine self-portraiture in some way,” said Jennifer Dasal, curator of the exhibition. “McIver’s portraits of herself and her family offer an opportunity for visitors to experience her world view as an African American, a caretaker, a daughter, and a woman.”

McIver, a Greensboro native whose first solo show was in 2003, is recognized as a significant presence in contemporary American art. McIver has examined racial, gender, and social identities through the lens of her own experiences. The history of her family—particularly the struggles surrounding her sister’s disability, her mother’s death, and her subsequent assumption of Renee’s caregiving—allows McIver to explore and illustrate the complicated emotions that arise from these situations, including depression, frustration, tender compassion, and innocent joy.

“All of my portraits are self-portraits,” says the artist. “I use the faces of others who reflect my most inner being.” Among those closest to McIver represented in Reflections are her sister Renee and her mother, Ethel.

Accompanied by an exhibition catalogue, Reflections includes numerous loans from the artist, private collections, and select museums, as well as a new painting, Truly Grateful, recently added to the NCMA’s permanent collection.

The NCMA will screen the documentary film about McIver, Raising Renee, produced and directed by Academy Award nominees Jeanne Jordan and Steven Ascher, on December 9. The screening begins at 7:30 and is free to the public; tickets are required as seating is limited.

The latest installment in a series of exhibitions dedicated to the art and artists of North Carolina, Reflections is part of the NCMA’s ongoing commitment to exhibit the work of emerging and established North Carolina artists. Solo and thematic exhibitions rotate twice a year and draw from loans and the Museum’s permanent collection. After the presentation at the NCMA, Reflections will travel to the Mint Museum’s Uptown location in Charlotte, North Carolina.