Always a Winner: Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, New York

Much like a DJ samples sounds from different genres, Nina Chanel Abney paintings reorganize imagery distorting their origin. In her current body of work, the paintings are ablaze with colorful images from history to pop culture while referencing extreme police brutality. Clearly and confidentely the five large scale paintings featured in Always a Winner shine a bright light on the bizarre relationship between deception and optimism. The paintings live or die by veiled references and satirizing scandal, whether it's the birth date of an infamous political leader, the hotel room number of a notorious assasination, a bikini-clad Secretary of State or a legendary rant by a drunken celebrity. Throughout the complexity of her work there are many 'aha moment's' when the viewer discovers her references. Nina Chanel Abney was born in Chicago, IL and currently resides in New Jersey. Her work has been shown at the Rubbell Family Collection, Brooklyn Museum, the Detroit Institute of the Arts, Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Nassau County Museum. In a recent collaboration with Macy's, she produced a 120 ft. long mural that spanned throughout the windows at Herald Sq. Her first solo museum show "Dealers Choice", curated by Marshall Price will open at the Nasher Museum in 2017.