Nina Chanel Abney Paints on the Edge of Violence

April 7, 2020 6:39 PM

"Abney locates much of her work on the recognition that abuse and violence are an integral part of the everyday consciousness of people of color. " (Hyperallergic, 2017) "…the artist employs stenciled shapes and symbols (dollar signs, X’s, teardrops, birds, and cats), while channeling safety posters, cartoons, graffiti, Stuart Davis’s jammed together planes of color, Sister Corita’s serigraphs, Emory Douglas’s artwork for the newspaper "Black Panther", and Henri Matisse’s cutouts, to address the prevailing state of incivility, rumor, misperception, and self-righteousness that has descended over America like a radioactive mist, infecting us all.”

"Current events, social media, and popular culture have always driven my work--basically anything that’s going on in the moment I’m creating the work. Because none of my paintings are planned, everything is completely intuitive." (Artforum, 2018)

"I could easily paint black figures, but I felt that my classmates during previous critiques… I felt like they were sympathetic to certain things, but they couldn’t really relate. So I thought why not just make them black? That was my whole thought process behind that. How would they feel if they were portrayed black? I had one classmate, I don’t know, I just felt it would be uncomfortable for him, so I made him extremely dark skinned. That’s the way I was thinking. I thought maybe they would understand it better if they were just in it."
Backstory: Nina Chanel Abney Revisits Her First Major Painting, ‘Class of 2007’ (Culture Type, 2016)

More images
Royal Flush: First Solo Museum Show (2018)
Safe House: Mary Boone Gallery (2017)

More background
Nina Chanel Abney Tells the Stories of Our Brutal World in Bold Detail (LA Mag, 2018)
How Nina Chanel Abney Is Championing the Black Lives Matter Movement with a Paintbrush (Vanity Fair, 2015)
Nina Chanel Abney tells hard truths and leaves room for questions at Pace Prints (artblog, 2018)
Using The Language Of Symbols, Nina Chanel Abney's New Mural At The ICA Tackles Systemic Racism (WBUR)

posted by AndNeverWell (3 comments total)

A really interesting artist I had never heard of. Thank you!
posted by emjaybee at 7:50 AM on April 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

Gorgeous, thanks so much for sharing. I'll keep an eye out for more.
posted by harriet vane at 4:37 AM on April 9, 2020

Thank you so much for this post! I’m loving how the work’s visual dynamism and approachability is in contrast to the deep, challenging subjects and themes of race, gender and social justice. Or as Abney says. “easy to swallow and hard to digest.” I read the list of references and a lot of them are influences in my own work. But Abney's work is so different than mine. After a day of looking at her work and swinging between jealousy and awe, I can accept the difference between realized genius (Abney) and my developing talent.

Recently at the Jacob Lawrence exhibit at Peabody Essex and I got a little overwhelmed at Panel 27 when a memory of a white relative dismissing the impact of racism popped into my head. Standing in front of the brutal painting I struggled with it. How could they not see? So I found Abney’s response to her classmate’s inability to relate ("why not just make them black?") profound and I’ll be mulling it over for a long time! Thanks for the new inspiration.
posted by Phyllis keeps a tight rein at 6:50 AM on April 9, 2020