From care home shifts to the world’s greatest galleries

Born in the foothills of Mount Kilamanjaro in Tanzania in 1954, Everlyn Nicodemus was brought up to know her worth – her grandmother told her she wasn't any less important than a man. Everlyn took that self-belief forward when she moved to Sweden aged 19, where she married and had a baby, and experienced racism for the first time. Craving a trip home, she returned to Tanzania in her 20s and picked up a paintbrush. Instantly, she fell in love with painting and did it whenever she could – fitting it in between raising a child, working and studying. She painted quietly for decades in countries across Europe before eventually settling in Scotland's capital city Edinburgh. Years later when she was widowed and in her 60s, Everlyn was struggling financially – working shifts in a nursing home and relying on foodbanks to get by. Until an unexpected phone call from a London-based gallery changed Everlyn’s life almost overnight, transforming the trajectory of her career. Now, Everlyn’s art has hung in some of the most renowned galleries in the world, including the Pompidou in Paris and MoMA in New York. And in 2022, one of Everlyn’s paintings became the first self-portrait by a black female artist to be acquired by the UK’s prestigious National Portrait Gallery.

Peruvian artist and photographer Christian Fuchs is fascinated by his illustrious ancestors, in part inspired by his grandmother who would tell him stories about their family. Christian spoke to Outlook's Jane Chambers in 2017 about how he spends months painstakingly recreating portraits of his ancestors, dressing up as them in elaborate makeup and costumes.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar

Producer: May Cameron

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(Photo: Everlyn Nicodemus wears a black shirt and spectacles and has close-cropped grey hair. Her pointing finger on one hand touches her little finger on the other, as if she's counting. She stands in a white room at the Richard Saltoun Gallery in London in front of two of her paintings. Her paintings are colourful abstract figurative images. Credit: David Levene/The Guardian)