Untitled (FUCK T*E *OP), 2014. Acrylic on canvas, 72 × 108 inches (182.88 × 274.32 cm). Collection of Kamaal Fareed. Image courtesy of Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, New York. © Nina Chanel Abney.

The Nasher Museum presents Nina Chanel Abney: Royal Flush, the first solo exhibition in a museum for the Chicago-born artist. The exhibition is a 10-year survey of approximately 30 of the artist’s paintings, watercolors and collages. Abney will also create a large, temporary wall drawing specifically for the museum. Abney, born in 1982, is at the forefront of a generation of artists that is unapologetically revitalizing narrative figurative painting, and as a skillful storyteller, she visually articulates the complex social dynamics of contemporary urban life.

“We are so excited to introduce this important young artist to wider audiences,” said Marshall N. Price, Nancy Hanks Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art and curator of the exhibition. “In her monumental paintings, Abney takes on some of the most pressing issues today from racial dynamics and criminal justice to consumerism and celebrity culture. Her seductive visual language is comprised of a jumble of figures, words and shapes to the point of information overload. With this as her backdrop, Abney creates paintings that explore some of the deeper recesses of human nature.”

Nina Chanel Abney: Royal Flush will travel to the Chicago Cultural Center, and then to Los Angeles, where it will be jointly presented by the Institute of Contemporary Art and the California African American Museum.

Exhibition Details

Nina Chanel Abney: Royal Flush

On View February 16 – July 16, 2017

View more of the artists work here: http://nasher.duke.edu/abney/