Nina Chanel Abney: Royal Flush, the catalogue that accompanies the original traveling exhibition of the same name, was chosen as one of 70 Merit award-winning designs in the 2018 HOW In-House Design Awards. This annual awards program recognizes the very best creative work produced by in-house designers who work for corporations, associations and organizations. Nina Chanel Abney: Royal Flush was edited by exhibition organizer Marshall N. Price, Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Nasher Museum, and designed by Reneé M. Cagnina Haynes, former exhibitions and publications manager at the Nasher Museum. It was published by the Nasher Museum, is available at the Nasher Museum Store and distributed by Duke University Press.
The New York Times art critic Roberta Smith selected Nina Chanel Abney: Royal Flush as one of the “Best Art Books of 2017.” Culture Type also included this catalogue in its “14 Best Black Art Books of 2017.” The catalogue has earned accolades from How Magazine and Burnaway.
This comprehensive catalogue accompanies the first solo-museum exhibition to focus on Nina Chanel Abney’s paintings over the past decade. Nina Chanel Abney: Royal Flush features essays by Marshall N. Price (curator and editor), Richard J. Powell (art historian and Duke University scholar), Natalie Y. Moore (South Side bureau reporter for WBEZ). The catalogue also includes a rich conversation between the artist and Jamillah James (curator with the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles) in which they explore Abney’s creative process and matriculation from art student to art-world rising star.