Winter/Miller Lecture: Nina Chanel Abney

Talks

Winter/Miller Lecture: Nina Chanel Abney

Event details

February 27, 2025, 6 PM

Location: Payne Room

Free and open to the public

The Winter/Miller Lecture is made possible through a generous gift by the family of Eleanor Linder Winter ’43

A symbol of two hands gesturing to indicate that Sign Language Interpretation is provided.

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Student staff

Allie Serapilio

2024-2025 Eleanor Linder Winter Endowed Intern, Student Advisory Council, past: Public Programming Intern, Tang Guide

Nina, with a blurry audience member on the left, speaks from behind a clear podium.

Winter/Miller Lecture: Nina Chanel Abney, Tang Teaching Museum, February 27, 2025, photo by Shawn LaChapelle

Join us for the eighth annual Winter/Miller Lecture on Thursday, February 27, at 6 pm, featuring acclaimed multidisciplinary artist Nina Chanel Abney. Abney is known for her bold paintings that challenge viewers to confront societal issues. She gained wide acclaim as the youngest artist included in the influential 2008 exhibition of work by contemporary Black artists 30 Americans, which has traveled the country.

The artist’s appearance at the Tang is by invitation from Allie Serapilio ’25, an English major and art history minor. She holds the prestigious 2024-25 Eleanor Linder Winter ’43 Internship, a one-year pre-professional program in museum work for Skidmore students. In this role, Serapilio is charged with the research, planning, and coordination of the annual Winter/Miller Lecture.

The Winter/Miller Lecture is made possible through a generous gift by the family of Eleanor Linder Winter ’43. The inaugural Winter/Miller lecture was delivered in 2018 by artist Nicole Eisenman, followed by Chris Ware in 2019, Wangechi Mutu in 2020, Nick Cave in 2021, Juliana Huxtable in 2022, Trenton Doyle Hancock in 2023, and Mickalene Thomas in 2024.

The program will include ASL interpretation.

This event is free and open to the public.

Winter/Miller Lecture 2025 with Nina Chanel Abney

Anchor name: Photos

About Nina Chanel Abney

Nina Chanel Abney (b. 1982, Harvey, Illinois) combines representation and abstraction to make paintings that 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 pays homage to Matisse’s color theories, continues the legacy of cubists, and connects with the synesthetic sensibilities of Harlem Renaissance greats. Abney brings these historical movements into contemporary pertinence.

Abney’s work is held in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, among many others. She has upcoming solo exhibitions at Anthony Gallery, Chicago, and Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles, and recently presented a monumental solo exhibition at The School | Jack Shainman Gallery, Kinderhook, New York.