BIOGRAPHY
Beverly Conley is a documentary photographer in Benicia, California. She finds true satisfaction in long-term, self-assigned projects that focus on individuals and contemporary society. Her quest has allowed her to enter the private worlds of Roma and Travellers in England, the Cherokee Nation in Northeastern Oklahoma, the Smithfield Meat Market in London, steelworkers in Weirton, West Virginia and the Cape Verdean Communities in Boston and in the Cape Verde Islands.
Solo exhibitions include the George Meany Center for Labor, the Boston Public Library, the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum in Arkansas, the Museum of Native American History and Culture in Bentonville, Arkansas, and the Black Arts Center in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Her work has been featured in juried exhibitions and group shows such as the Festival of American Folklife at the Smithsonian Institution, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Collectors' Photography Gallery in Corte Madera, California, and the Cochran Gallery in La Grange, Georgia.
She is represented in numerous permanent collections including the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Museum of London, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the New York Public Library, the Toledo Museum of Art, the Boston Public Library, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Cleveland Public Library, and the Museum of Native American History and Culture in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Beverly is the recipient of a Michigan Creative Artist Grant and she has received awards from the Utah Press Association, the International Regional Magazine Association and an excellence award by Black and White Magazine for her contribution to their 2017 Special Issue. She is a member of the American Society of Media Photographers (“ASMP”).
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS (*Single Shows)
2023 Arts Benicia, Art of a Community, Benicia, California
2022* A Smith Gallery, Appleby Horse Fair: An Annual Gathering of Roma and Travellers in Appleby, England, Johnson City, Texas
2022 Stonehenge Gallery, Montgomery Photo Festival, Montgomery, Alabama, Juried
2022 A Smith Gallery, 12th Anniversary Exhibition, Johnson City, Texas, Juried
2022 A Smith Gallery, “She” Exhibition, Juror’s Award, Johnson City, Texas
2022 Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), Berkeley, California
2022 Arts Benicia, Art of a Community, Benicia, California
2021 Cochran Gallery, Slow Exposures: Celebrating Photography of the Rural South, La Grange, Georgia, Juried
2021 Collectors’ Photography Gallery, Off the Beaten Path, Corte Madera, California
2019 14th Pollux Awards, Honorable Mention Documentary and Reportage, York, England
2018 Center for Photographic Arts, International Exhibition, Carmel, California, Juried
2018 Art Center of the Ozarks, The Natural State, Springdale, Arkansas
2018 PhotoPlace Gallery, Celebrating Women, Middlebury, Vermont, Juried
2017 PhotoPlace Gallery, The Decisive Moment, Middlebury, Vermont, Juried
2017 Texas Photographic Society, 30th Annual Members Only Show, First Place, Houston, Juried
2016* Museum of Native American History, Oklahoma’s Cherokee Country, Bentonville, Arkansas
2016* Anne Kittrell Art Gallery, University of Arkansas, Life in the Ozarks, Fayetteville, Arkansas
2016 Rayco Photo Center, San Francisco, California, Juried
2016* Fort Smith Regional Art Museum, Life in the Ozarks: An Arkansas Portrait & Oklahoma’s Cherokee Country, Arkansas
2016* The Pennsylvania Center for Photography and Stephanie Lisle, Promotion of the Arts: Americana, Doylestown, Juried
2016* Black Arts & Cultural Center: Cape Verdean Series, Kalamazoo, Michigan
2015 Texas Photographic Society, TPS 24: The International Competition, Johnson City, Juried
2015 New York Center for the Photographic Art, Rural Impressions, Two Honorable Mentions, New York, Juried
2015* Cleveland Public Library (from permanent collection), Main Branch, Ohio
2015 Height Arts, Cleveland, Ohio
2010 PhotoPlace Gallery, PhotoPlace Open 2010, Middlebury, Vermont, Juried
2009 Arts Center of the Ozarks, Fifteenth Annual Regional Exhibition, Springdale, Arkansas, Juried
2008 Monmouth Museum, Photography Invitational Exhibition, Lincroft, New Jersey, Juried
2008 Photographic Center Northwest, 13th Annual Photographic Competition Exhibition, Seattle, Washington, Juried
2005 Thirty-Fourth Annual Trail of Tears Art Show, Tahlequah, Oklahoma, Second Place, Graphics, Juried
2005* Northeastern State University, Oklahoma’s Cherokee Country, Tahlequah, Oklahoma
2004 Fort Smith Art Center, First & Second Place, Black & White, Fort Smith , Arkansas, Juried
2003 Gallery Kayafas, Boston, Massachusetts
2002 Ford Community Performing Arts Center, Padzieski Art Gallery, Dearborn, Michigan
2001* George Meany Center for Labor, Work Culture in a Changing World, Silver Springs, Maryland
2001* Cleveland State University, East 4th Street and Prospect Avenue Series, Ohio
2001* Trumbull Art Gallery, Cape Verdean Women, Warren, Ohio
2001 The Scarab Club, Best of Show, Detroit, Michigan, Juried
2000 The Art Museum of SUNY Potsdam, Gibson Gallery, Potsdam, New York, Juried
2000 The Museum of Anthropology at California State University, Chico, Best of Show, Juried
1999 University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, Juried
1995 Smithsonian Institution, Festival of American Folklife, Washington DC
1995* Cape Cod College, Cape Verdean Community in the Boston Area, Barnstable, Massachusetts
1994 Boston University, Massachusetts
1994* Boston Public Library, Cape Verdeans in the Boston Area and Cape Verde Islands, Massachusetts
1990 South Bank Photo Exhibition, London, England, Juried
1989* Fogg Museum Of Art, Harvard University, Cape Verde Community in the Boston Area, Cambridge, Massachusetts
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2023 Black & White Magazine Portfolio Contest Winners, The Appleby Horse Fair: The largest gathering of Roma and Travellers in Europe.
2022 A Smith Gallery, Limited Edition Hardbound Fine Art Book, She “The 27.” One of 27 Photographers Selected from 700 Entries Received
for the “She” Exhibition, Johnson City, Texas
2019 LensWork Community Book Project, Seeing in Sixes. Project: Life in the Ozarks: An Arkansas Portrait, One of 150
Photographers Selected from 4,000 Entries Received for the 2016, 2017, and 2018 books, Anacortes, WA
2018 Vision Project: An Organization that Includes the Development of Documentary Photography, Life in the Ozarks: An Arkansas Portrait,
Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, Connecticut
2017 All About Photo Newsletter, Life in the Ozarks: An Arkansas Portrait, San Francisco, California
2017 Black & White Magazine, Special Issue: 2017 Contest Winners, Excellence Award: Life in the Ozarks: An Arkansas Portrait, Arroyo Grande, CA
2017 LensWork, Seeing in Sixes, Six Image Projects from LensWork Readers, Project: Life in the Ozarks: An Arkansas Portrait, Anacortes, Washington
2015 Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Double Exposure: African American Women, Washington DC
2013 Asylum Lake Magazine, Issue #10, Kalamazoo, Michigan
2011 The American Scholar, Washington DC
2009 The Sun Magazine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
2007 Focus Fine Art Photography Magazine, Photo Essay: Life in the Ozarks, Brooklyn, New York
2006 The Wilson Quarterly, Washington DC
2004 La Fotografia Actual, Photo Essay: Weirton, West Virginia: A Town Built on Steel, Barcelona, Spain
2003 Reader Gallery, Black & White Photography, East Sussex, England
2000 Oklahoma Today Magazine, Photo Essay: Cherokee Country: A Documentary
2000 Native Peoples Magazine, Photo Essay: Native American Preparatory School, Phoenix, Arizona
1997 Towery Publishing, Inc, Book: Cleveland, Continuing the Renaissance
1997 Labor's Heritage Magazine, Feature Story/Photo Essay: Work Culture in a Changing World, Silver Springs, Maryland
1996 Culture Front Magazine, Photo essay: Anger Transformed: Marysville Prison, Ohio, New York, New York
1995 Northern Ohio Live Magazine, Feature Story/Photo Essay: My City Was Gone, Cleveland, OH
1994 Society/Transactions Magazine, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
1993 Revue Noire, Magazine, Paris, France
1993 Class Magazine, Feature Story and Photo Essay, Cape Verde in the Americas, New York, New York
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington DC
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Museum of London, London, England
Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio
The New York Public Library, New York
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, New York
Boston Public Library, Print Collection, Boston, Massachusetts
Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland, Ohio
Fort Smith Regional Art Museum, Arkansas
Museum of Native American History, Bentonville, Arkansas
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio
The Museum of Anthropology at California State University, Chico
The Art Museum of SUNY Potsdam, Gibson Gallery, Potsdam, New York
Cambridge Historical Commission, Massachusetts
John Cleary Gallery, Owner’s Private Collection, Houston, Texas
AWARDS
2017 Black & White Magazine, Special Issue: 2017 Contest Winners, Excellence Award: Life in the Ozarks: An Arkansas Portrait, Arroyo Grande, CA
2017 Biennial Grant for Fine Art & Documentary Photography, Shortlist: Life in the Ozarks: An Arkansas Portrait, York, England
2005 Black &White Annual, Single Image Contest Awards, Merit Award in Photojournalism/Documentary
2002 Art Serve Michigan, Creative Artist Grant
2001 International Regional Magazine, Award of Merit in Photojournalism
2000 Museum of Anthropology at California State University, Chico, Purchasing Award
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP
American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP)