If You Say So: Project for Empty Space, Newark, New Jersey

PES Artist In Residence, Nina Chanel Abney's If You Say So… was an exhibition of large scale paintings and collages created by the artist during a trip to Brazil during her residency. The works were comprised of brilliantly hued geometries, alphanumeric forms, and androgynous figures. Hyper-pigmented blues, blinding oranges, and curvaceous yet precise monochrome silhouettes of faces sambaed across giant canvases. Despite the apparent gaiety and vibrance of Abney’s works, the conceptual genesis of the collection was borne from the nefarious and widespread transnational pandemic of racial discrimination, economics, and police brutality.

At its inception, If You Say So… was Abney’s reaction to a New York Times Op-Ed ‘In Denial About Racism in Brazil’ by Vanessa Barbara, which discussed the unwavering and rampant trend of police brutality against young black and brown bodies in the favelas. The solid-colored arch forms found in the work drew from São Paulo’s rich architectural lexicon, while intermittent bursts of electric spray-paint nodded to tradition of street art and favela visual culture. The works that were started in Brazil were only the starting point for a much more expansive discourse on race. There was an obvious contextual parallel between the killings in São Paulo that first galvanized If You Say So… and the social climate in the United States, particularly in America’s metropolises.

The role of politics, race, power, and sexuality are at the heart of much of Abney’s work. One of her past solo exhibitions, Always A Winner, directly addressed police brutality and the #Blacklivesmatter movement in America. Her work pulls from contemporary politics and pop culture and addresses them through a practice of absurdly exaggerated forms, anti-realism, and an adamantly  pop aesthetic. Her sensibility pulls from a vast mix of sources ranging from South Park to Romare Bearden.