Everlyn Nicodemus - Black Bird

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.

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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Black Bird borrows its title from a yet-unpublished manuscript written by Nicodemus, invoking the poetry and the rich imagery that her work invites us to navigate.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.

Curator: Sofia Dati

The exhibition is organised in collaboration with National Galleries of Scotland and with the generous support of Richard Saltoun Gallery.

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About the artist

Everlyn Nicodemus lives and works in Edinburgh. She moved to Scotland fifteen years ago, after having lived in Antwerp then Brussels between 1990 and 2008. She is recipient of the 2022 Freelands Foundation Award for her retrospective at the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, from October 2024 to May 2025. Her work has been included in various solo and group exhibitions, including Paris Noir, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2025); Love is Louder, Bozar, Brussels (2024); Richard Saltoun Gallery, London (2022); Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York (2023); Hacking Habitat: Art of Control, Utrecht, Holland (2016); 18th Biennale of Sydney (2012), curated by Catherine de Zegher; Bystander on Probation, The Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal, UK (2007); Crossing the Void, Cultural Center Strombeek, Brussels (2004); Displacements, University of Alicante, Spain (1997); Vessels of Silence, Kanaal Art Foundation, Kortrijk, Belgium (1992); Everlyn Nicodemus, National Museum, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (1980). She is represented by Richard Saltoun Gallery, London, and Andrew Kreps, New York.