Born in 1982 in Harvey, IL, USA
Lives and works in New York, USA
Combining representation and abstraction, Nina Chanel Abney’s paintings capture the frenetic pace of contemporary culture. Broaching subjects as diverse as race, celebrity, religion, politics, sex, and art history, her works eschew linear storytelling in lieu of disjointed narratives. The effect is information overload, balanced with a kind of spontaneous order, where time and space are compressed and identity is interchangeable. Her distinctively bold style harnesses the flux and simultaneity that has come to define life in the 21st century. Paying homage to the sophisticated color theories of Matisse, continuing the legacy of cubists, Picasso and Léger, and connecting with the synesthetic sensibilities of Harlem Renaissance greats, Douglas and Lawrence, Abney brings these historical movements into contemporary pertinence.
education
2006 MFA, Parsons School of Design, New York, NY
2004 BFA, Augustana College, Rock Island, IL
solo shows
2025
- Now What? Or What Else?, Perrotin, Paris, France
- Nina Chanel Abney in the Elleboog Chapel, Kunsthal Kade, Amersfoort, NL
- FLAGGED, Anthony Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
- Winging It, Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2024
- LIE DOGGO, The School | Jack Shainman Gallery, Kinderhook, NY, USA
2023
- Big Butch Energy/Synergy, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA, USA
- Big Butch Synergy, moCa Cleveland, Cleveland, OH, USA
2022
- Big Butch Energy, ICA Miami, Miami, FL, USA
- Fishing Was His Life, The Gordon Parks Foundation, Pleasantville, NY, USA. Traveled to Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA, USA
2021
- Nina Chanel Abney, The Contemporary Dayton, Dayton, OH, USA
2020
- The Great Escape, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2019
- Nina Chanel Abney, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA, USA
- Nina Chanel Abney: Neon, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL, USA
2018
- Hot to Trot. Not., Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
- FOCUS: Nina Chanel Abney, The Modern, Fort Worth, TX, USA
2017
- Nina Chanel Abney: Royal Flush, The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC, USA. Traveled to Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL, USA; Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA, USA; and the Neuberger Museum of Art, State University of New York at Purchase, NY, USA
- Seized the Imagination, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2016
- If You Say So..., The Gateway Project, Newark, NJ, USA
2015
- Always a Winner, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, NY, USA
- Painting exhibition, Macy’s window, New York, NY, USA
- Run Run, Chicago Mural Project, Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
- If You Say So..., Galeria Rabieh, São Paulo, Brazil
2012
- I Dread to Think, Anna Kustera Gallery and Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2010
- Go Berserker!, Fred Gallery, London, United Kingdom.
2009
- Emma's Basement, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2008
- Dirty Wash, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, NY, USA
group shows
2025
- Domestic Interventions: The Metroplex, Gladwell Projects, Dallas, TX, USA
- Rest/Play, Governor's Island, New York, NY, USA
- The System is Alive, Perrotin, London, UK
- FEMMES, curated by Pharrell Williams, Perrotin, Paris, France
2024
- Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, USA; traveling to the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, USA; and the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN, USA
- A Superlative Palette: Contemporary Black Women Artists, Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, Charlotte, NC, USA
- Are You Joking? Women & Humor, The Church, Sag Harbor, New York, USA
- Conversation Galante, Pilar Corrias, London, United Kingdom
2023
- The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD, USA. Traveling to: Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, MO, USA; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH, USA; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage, Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN, USA. Traveling to: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX, USA; The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, USA
- Hoop Dreams: Basketball and Contemporary Art, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY, USA
2022
- When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town, South Africa, USA; traveled to Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel, Switzerland; and BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium
- Beyond the Surface: Collage, Mixed Media and Textile Works from the Collection, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
- Come As You Are, Anthony Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
2021
- Matisse Alive, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, Australia
- Re: Bicycling, Susan Inglett Gallery, New York, NY, USA
- Art Finds a Way, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL, USA
2020
- Never Done: 100 Years of Women in Politics and Beyond, Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Saratoga Springs, NY, USA
- 1988, Anthony Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
2019
- Men of Change: Power. Triumph. Truth., National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA; Traveling to: Washington State History Museum, Tacoma, WA, USA; California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Anacostia Community Museum, Washington, D.C., USA; African American Museum, Dallas, TX, USA; Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI, USA; Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture, Baltimore, MD, USA; Levine Museum of the New South and Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture, Charlotte, NC, USA; International African American Museum, Charleston, SC, USA; Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and Birmingham Public Library, Birmingham, AL, USA
- 30 Americans, Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- New Image Portrait, curated by Todd Kramer, Stems Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
- Paintings, Mary Boone Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2018
- Punch, curated by Nina Chanel Abney, Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Shifting Gaze: A Reconstruction of the Black & Hispanic Body in Contemporary Art, The Menello Museum of American Art, Orlando, FL, USA. Traveled to: Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virgina Beach, VA, USA; Galleries at Peeler, Depauw University, Greencastle, IN, USA; Opalka Gallery, Russell Sage College, Albany, NY, USA
- Imagined Borders, Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea
- Out of Control, Venus Over Manhattan, New York, NY, USA
- Paintings, Mary Boone Gallery, New York, NY, USA
- Travelogue, The School | Jack Shainman Gallery, Kinderhook, NY, USA
2017
- Animal Farm, curated by Sadie Laska, The Brant Foundation Art Study Center, Greenwich, CT, USA
2016
- Juxtapoz x Superflat, Vancouver Art Gallery, British Columbia, Canada
- Greek Gotham, Dio Horia Gallery, Mykonos, Greece
- AfterModernism Hamptons, Nicole Ripka Gallery, Watermill, NY, USA
- Coney Island Art Walls, Queens, NY. No Commission, New York, NY, USA
- FOR FREEDOMS, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY, USA
- Flatlands, The Whitney Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA
- Imagine, Brand New Gallery, Milan, Italy
- Block Party, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2015
- No Man’s Land: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL, USA. Traveled to National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, USA
- Mysterious Muck, Circuit 12 Contemporary, Dallas, TX, USA
- Outta Town Sh*t, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, NY, USA
- To Be Young, Gifted, and Black, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Eye Contact, Brooklyn, NY, USA
- Black Skate, Papillion Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Look At Me Now! / On The Wall, Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
- Womanhouse, Eric Firestone Gallery, East Hampton, NY, USA
- Africa's Out, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY, USA
- Manifest Justice, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Visualizing Our Americana - Color Polemics, Newark, NJ, USA
- 8 Painters, Danese / Corey Gallery, New York, NY, USA
- Empire of the Senseless, Friedman Benda, New York, NY, USA
2014
- Made by Brazillians, Cidade Matarazzo, São Paulo, Brazil
- Wretch, Honey Ramka Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, USA
- Look at Me, Leila Heller Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2013
- Stacks on Deck, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, NY, USA
- After Modernism, Nassau County Museum, Roslyn Harbor, NY, USA
- Bathers, Morgan Lehman Gallery, New York, NY, USA
- Untitled, Clifford Chance, New York, NY, USA
- 100 Little Deaths, BravinLee Programs, New York, NY, USA
2012
- Visions of Our 44th President, The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI, USA
- 30 Americans,
- Itʼs Hard to Leave When You Canʼt Find the Door, LaMontagne Gallery, Boston, MA, USA
- Words of Wisdom, KK Outlet, London, United Kingdom
- Solo Mujeres 2012, Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Disorder, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2011
- The Bearden Project, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, USA
- Converging Voices / Transforming Dialogue, The University Museum, Texas Southern University, Houston, TX, USA
2010
- The Incomplete Paris, Galerie Jean Luc and Takako Richard, Paris, France
- I'll let you be in my dreams I can be in yours, Fredericks & Freiser Gallery, New York, NY, USA
- Spring 2, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, NY, USA
- Thrown Together, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2009
- Extended Family, Long Term Installation from Permanent Collection, Brooklyn Museum, NY, USA
- The Edible Woman, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, NY, USA
- The Glamour Project, curated by Suzanne Donaldson in conjunction with Glamour Magazine, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY, USA
- Winter Escape, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2008
- 30 Americans, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL, USA. Traveled to: North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, USA; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, USA; Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN, USA; Milwaukee Museum, Milwaukee, WI, USA; Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, LA, USA
- Defining A Moment: 25 New York Artists, curated by Simon Watson and Craig Hensala, House of Campari, New York, NY, USA
- LARGE FORMAT, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2007
- Pink Polemic, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, NY, USA
- CAA New York Area MFA Exhibition, Times Square Gallery, Hunter College, New York, NY, USA
- Parsons MFA Thesis Show, Caelum Gallery, New York, NY, USA
public collections
Bronx Museum, NY, USA
Brooklyn Museum, NY, USA
Burger Collection, Hong Kong
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., USA
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX, USA
The Dean Collection LLC, New York, NY, USA
Girl's Club Collection, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA
Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, NC, USA
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, USA
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL, USA
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, USA
The Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL, USA
Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH, USA
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA
Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, USA
awards
2016 Summit Powder Mountain, Eden, UT, USA
2015 – 2016 The Gateway Project Artist in Residence
2011 Permanent Public Mural, Community Artist in Residence: THEARC, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA