The Next Irascibles: Nina Chanel Abney

The work of the 27-year-old painter Nina Chanel Abney is sheer tour-de-force. Her paintings consist of strong feminine and masculine images infused with humor, irony, perversity, satire and fantasy, marked by the bold lines of Francesco Clemente and the sensual yet disturbing colors of Francis Bacon. The style, however, is all her own. The result is that Abney's paintings seem to possess both the permanence of museum pieces and the emotional appeal of street murals. Given such talent, it's not surprising that Abney got picked up by Chelsea gallery Kravets|Wehby right out of grad school and, like a chosen few, launched into a career as an artist without skipping a beat. Everything she's painted so far has been sold, and if you're interested, there's a waiting list. The big-time art patronizing Rubell family was one of Abney's first collectors. Later, when the Rubell Family Collection organized the "30 Americans" show during Art Basel Miami 2008, they gave an entire wing to her paintings.

[top] "The Takeover," 2008

The Illinois native, named after her mother's favorite singer (Nina Simone) and perfume (Chanel no. 5), moved to New York to attend Parsons' MFA program four years ago. Not totally familiar with the city when she arrived, Abney arbitrarily settled on an apartment in Jersey City. "I feel a little removed from the whole Chelsea and party scenes -- I find out about them eventually," says Abney, who has no plans to leave her perch across the river. "I like the distance. It's only 15 minutes away and I can come into the city whenever I want to. But then I come here and it's a little more quiet." She's about to have a piano delivered so she can practice jazz in between working on a large piece for a group show at Kravets|Wehby in October and her first solo show abroad at Fred Gallery in London next year. When you are that good and that busy, you don't need to chase the scene. It comes and finds you -- even in Jersey City.
Carol Lee

[top] "Close But No Cigar," 2008; [right] "Forbidden Fruit," 2008

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