Everlyn Nicodemus

Last updated

Everlyn Nicodemus
Born1954
Marangu, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. [1]
Education Stockholm University (1978–1982), Berlin University of the Arts (1988), Middlesex University (2007–2012) [2]
Known for
Spouse(s)Unknown (divorced); Kristian Romare (died 2015) [1]
Awards

Everlyn Nicodemus is a Tanzanian-born artist, writer, and curator, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. [4]

Early life and career

Nicodemus initially enrolled in teacher training school, but eloped to marry a Swedish economist working in Tanzania. [1] The pair moved to Sweden in 1973, where, influenced by her experiences of everyday racism, she enrolled in Stockholm University in 1978 to study social anthropology. [5]

While back in Tanzania doing fieldwork, Nicodemus started making art in response to her discomfort with anthropology. This quickly led to a solo exhibition of paintings and poems at the National Museum of Tanzania in Dar es Salaam in 1980. [5]

After divorcing her first husband, Nicodemus married Kristian Romare, a Swedish art historian, with whom she moved to Edinburgh in 2008. [2]

Her work includes paintings, collages, mixed-media assemblages, and poetry, and has been informed by racism, trauma, PTSD, and recovery. [6] She completed her PhD on African Modern Art and Black Cultural Trauma at Middlesex University in 2012. [7]

Nicodemus won the Freelands Foundation Award in 2022, [3] which supported the first retrospective of her work, at the National Galleries of Scotland, from September 2024 to May 2025. [4] Her painting Självporträtt, Åkersberga was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery, London in 2022, [8] and became the first painted self-portrait by a black female artist in the gallery's collection. [2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Bakare, Lanre (19 April 2022). "'They told me I was a savage' – the unstoppable painter Everlyn Nicodemus". The Guardian.
  2. 1 2 3 "Everlyn Nicodemus". Ben Uri Research Unit.
  3. 1 2 "Freelands Award 2022".
  4. 1 2 "Everlyn Nicodemus". National Galleries of Scotland.
  5. 1 2 "A Woman in the World: Everlyn Nicodemus". post (Museum of Modern Art). 2 October 2024.
  6. ↑ "Silent Strength 36". The Arts Council Collection.
  7. ↑ "Everlyn Nicodemus". Richard Saltoun.
  8. ↑ "Everlyn Nicodemus ('Självporträtt, Åkersberga') by Everlyn Nicodemus". National Portrait Gallery.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.