Beverly Buchanan (October 8, 1940 – July 4, 2015)[1] was an African-American artist whose works include painting, sculpture, video, and land art.

Her parents divorced when she was young, and she was sent to live with her great-aunt and uncle, Marion and Walter Buchanan, in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

[4] Buchanan spent a considerable amount of time with her adopted father on his trips where he would work with tenant farmers in the Cotton Belt, advising them in their farming processes.

[2] Buchanan began creating paintings and sculptures in the 1960s, showing her work at exhibitions and fairs in Staten Island and the Bronx.

An example of a three-dimensional work from her early career is the sculpture "Ruins and Rituals" at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Macon, Georgia, part of a series of concrete structures that recall ancient tombs.

[16] Scholar Janet T. Marquardt argues that Buchanan treats shacks not as documentary elements but as "images of endurance and personal history"; often using bright colors and a style of childlike simplicity, the works "evoke the warmth and happiness that can be found even in the meanest dwelling, representing the faith and caring that is not reserved for privileged classes.

"[16] Her art takes the form of stone pedestals, bric-a brac assemblages, funny poems, self portraits and sculptural shacks.

But potent themes of identity, place and collective memory unite the works uncovering the animus that runs through them: to connect with those around her and reckon with the history that shaped her communities.

"[18] Scholar Alex Campbell notes in an essay how Buchanan worked in a studio on College Street in Macon, Georgia, which served as an unofficial racial dividing line for the town.

[1] In the fall of 2016 a comprehensive exhibition of her work opened at the Brooklyn Museum in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, organized by artist Park McArthur and curator Jennifer Burris.

[14] Beverly Buchanan - Ruins and Rituals featured painting, sculptures, drawings, as well as the artist's notebooks and photographs form her personal archive.

'"[27][28] Buchanan's work featured among that of twenty African-American artists in an exhibition at the Turner Contemporary, Margate, Kent, UK in February 2020, entitled 'We Will Walk-Art and Resistance in the American South'.