ARTIST TALK ¿ NINA CHANEL ABNEY

Meet the Chicago-born artist whose first solo museum show is on view at the Nasher Museum through July 16.

The exhibition, Nina Chanel Abney: Royal Flush is a 10-year survey of approximately 30 of the artist's paintings, watercolors and collages. Abney emerged in 2008 when her work was included in the notable exhibition 30 Americans, organized by the Rubell Family Collection, Miami. As one of the youngest among a distinguished group of intergenerational African American artists, she immediately became part of an important artistic lineage. Her large-scale paintings in that exhibition included Class of 2007, depicting her white MFA class as African American inmates conspicuously wearing orange jumpsuits. It was a commentary on incarceration, race and inherent inequities in higher education and signaled the artist's immediate willingness to confront difficult issues. Abney continues to mine aspects of American culture to create compelling, narrative tableaux reminiscent of grand manner history painting.