Nina Chanel Abney's Paintings Mix The Pretty, The Political And The Perverse (PHOTOS)

Nina Chanel Abney paints vibrant multicultural murals with disjointed narratives that confuse and delight. With a bold palette and bolder sense of humor, Abney creates bizarre scenarios that add a hint of perversity to each piece, resulting in a mashup of celebrity and literary references.

Abney's scenes are full of bizarre costumes and undecipherable symbols, and even her characters' faces resist familiarity, looking more masklike than natural. The images are forceful, viewers can sense a political passion but cannot quite decipher the "moral," similarly they buzz with both masculine and feminine energy. To make sense of her work, we asked Nina some questions:

 HP: Can you describe how you found your visual language?‬
 
NA: I think it kinda found me. I work very intuitively, so my visual language is a combination of the different things I'm interested in as well as whatever happens in the moment that I am creating a painting. And I feel like my visual language is, and will continue to constantly change as times goes on. I am always trying new things, and editing out different elements in my work.

HP: Would you call your work narrative driven? Is there a message or more of an experiment/experience?‬

NA: ‪I think my earlier work was more narrative driven, in which I focus on one particular story or experience, but I've become more interested in mixing disjointed narratives and abstraction, and finding interesting ways to obscure any possible story that can be assumed when viewing my work. So I don't necessarily aim to send out a particular message, rather I want the work to provoke the viewer come up with their own message, or answer some of their own questions surrounding the different subjects that I touch in my work.‬

HP: ‪To what extent is your work personal/autobiographical? Do you think all artwork is autobiographical in some way?‬

NA: I do think that all artwork is personal/autobigraphical in the sense that it's a reflection of the artist's thoughts. I treat the canvas like a journal in that it's a place where I can release any concerns, emotions, and just the different thoughts swirling around in my head in general.  ‬

HP: ‪That kind of alludes to what I was going to ask you about all the diverse ground you cover in your work (religion, politics, sex). Would you say that in your head they are all on an equal playing ground?‬

NA: Definitely. There's so much information that comes at an individual during the course of a day.  In one day, I may read the paper, get on the internet and browse through YouTube, my Facebook timeline, look at Twitter, watch the news, watch Bravo, VH1, read gossip blogs, listen to music, and do this all while talking on the phone and texting, so it's ‬‪impossible for me not to cover a multitude of topics.  I'm living in an age of information overload.  ‬

HP: What's a work of art that inspires you?‬ 

NA: Dana Schutz's painting The Autopsy of Michael Jackson‬ and Kanye West's Runaway film.

Take a look at Abney's wild worlds below, and let us know what you think in the comments section.

Comments

[milles manson]

04:59 PM on 02/21/2012

i can see how someone drinking (to much) wine could see something in this or fish something out of it.dont need no art class man this is do it yourself art,free lance dude.

[nutindere]

09:08 AM on 02/21/2012

The color palettes are beautiful. But like rap music, too much going on in these paintings, the message is muddled.

[wheelnut53]

02:07 AM on 02/21/2012

Dont be surprise when its revealed these were painted by an elephant , I dont know art but I know what I like

[cotter]

09:04 PM on 02/20/2012

"Forbidden Fruit" is cool, I also like Fetch, art is for taking a trip and the colors and distortion are great for that.

[Brownlillie]

12:40 PM on 02/20/2012

Great profile of one of my favorite living artist! What excites me about Nina's work is that underneath the bizarre is a narrative inclusive of current society. Which is probably why I'm never at complete ease with her work; each piece embodies an infinite journey relatable to who I maybe at any moment in time. Clearly her work challenges any and all assumptions. @Brownlillie

[eric14]

05:53 PM on 02/20/2012

I would be happy to read any reviews of art or other that you write!
If modern schools were about knowing, the postmodern are about not knowing;
modern about order; postmodern about chaos
modern about abstract expression (self synthesized); postmodern is concrete expression (self in the raw)
the modern is about the collective order; the postmodern about individuals in disorder.
the modern is about spinning myths around facts; the postmodern - don't kid me the facts are myths.

The postmodern is not yet understood. the first bash the French had at it went haywire. We need to define it again.