Since appearing nine years ago as part of the influential exhibition “30 Americans,” the painter Nina Chanel Abney has established herself as an artist whose work uniquely fuses social commentary and formal play. Below, Abney discusses the evolution of her practice and her first solo museum…

Nina Chanel Abney, “Randaleeza,” 2008, Acrylic on canvas, 90 × 94 inches, private collection/ Photo: Peter Paul Geoffrion RECOMMENDED To face a Nina Chanel Abney painting is to be confronted by a hanging calamity, her flash-bang dazzling works reflecting—riotously, righteously, flatly, regally,…

The paintings are crying in “Royal Flush,” a survey of artwork by Nina Chanel Abney up through midspring at the Cultural Center. They’re angry and hurting and knowing, and they have every reason to be: The continuing brutalization of African-Americans by police, the incessant swarm that is social…

Studio Visit: Nina Chanel Abney by Osman Can Yerebakan “Everything is equally treated.” All photographs by Osman Can Yerebakan. On my second trip to Nina Chanel Abney’s studio in Jersey City, New Jersey, I found the paintings from my initial visit two weeks earlier replaced by a new series of works.…

Nina Chanel Abney, “Hobson’s Choice” (2017), acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 84 1/4 x 120 3/16 x 1 15/16 inches (image courtesy Jack Shainman Gallery) We live in a world of sensory overload, in which news, events, opinions, and gossip are routinely mashed together. For many people who follow…

ART TALK B. Wurtz and Nina Chanel Abney Hunter Drohojowska-Philp talks about a pair of unexpectedly sympathetic shows at the ICA in downtown L.A. LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE Oct 04, 2018 Podcast Subscribe Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Play RSS FROM THIS EPISODE Shows chock full of the detritis of daily…

Figurative painting is the art of representation. It’s taking something that is real, tangible, and recognizable and using any number of mediums to create it again. With figurativism the artist can present exactly what exists or they can form greater contexts and appoint new meanings. Some artists…

Nina Chanel Abney poses with her work First and Last.Photograph: Image courtesy of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Photo by J Caldwell L ast week was a busy one in Los Angeles for Nina Chanel Abney. The New Jersey-based painter’s California debut has two concurrent exhibitions at the…