YVM x Nina Chanel Abney
TagTO x YVM
June 5, 2021 –As the producers of Yorkville Murals, Taglialatella Galleries – Toronto is proud to share with you an exciting new addition to the neighbourhood of Yorkville. This time last year, Yorkville Murals Festival was launched as a celebration of emerging and local street artists and a rejuvenation of the artistic energy that once characterized the neighbourhood of Yorkville. This year we are taking things one step further. In partnership with local curator Ashley Mckenzie-Barnes, Yorkville Murals invited international artists Nina Chanel Abney to create a monumental mural spanning the length of Bellair St. Chanel Abney’s mural, Generally Speaking, is a response to the crescendo of the BLM movement that occured in the summer of 2020 and speaks to healing community trauma and fostering a sense of togetherness.
Combining representation and abstraction, Nina Chanel Abney’s paintings capture the frenetic pace of contemporary culture. Broaching subjects as diverse as race, celebrity, religion, politics, sex, and art history, her works eschew linear storytelling in lieu of disjointed narratives. The effect is information overload, balanced with a kind of spontaneous order, where time and space are compressed and identity is interchangeable. Her distinctively bold style harnesses the flux and simultaneity that has come to define life in the 21st century.Through a bracing use of color and unapologetic scale, Abney’s canvases propose a new type of history painting, one grounded in the barrage of everyday events and funneled through the velocity of the internet.
Curator for Harbourfront Centre’s 25th Anniversary of KUUMBA, Canada’s longest Black History Month celebration, and the 2019 Suit. Blanche Toronto – Ashley is responsible for introduction Toronto’s art scene to internationally acclaimed artists and art projects like Colin Kaeperknick’s Know Your Rights Camp (NYC), JR’s Inside Out Project (PAR), Nina Chanel Abney (NYC), Shani Crowe (CHI), Vince Fraser (UK), Mister Cartoon (LA) and Dubelyoo (ATL). Working within a variety of DIY spaces and traditional galleries to major Canadian landmarks including the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), CBC, Steam Whistle Brewery, Fort York, Yonge & Dundas Square and Toronto City Hall.
A rising star, Nina Chanel Abney has been making waves internationally for her socially and politically engaged artistic practice. She was featured on the cover of Vanity Fair’s November 2020 issue and the New Yorker’s May 2021 issue, receiving recognition for the shape her work has taken in the face of the pandemic and social justice issues that have taken the world by storm.
Nina Chanel Abney’s presence in the art market continues to flourish. Her piece UNTITLED (XXXXXX), 2015 recently achieved a record price at auction, exceeding any pre-sale estimate and fetching $990,000.00 at Christie’s 21st Century Evening Sale on May 11, 2021.