Nina Chanel Abney Unveils New Arkansas Mural With a Message of Love
“STOP – DON’T KILL – LOVE – BLACK.”Earlier this month, Justkids alongside Bentonville, Arkansas-based organization OZ Art unveiled a basketball court mural by London-based contemporary artist Lakwena. The site-specific work is part of the duo’s ongoing program entitled ARkanvas that invites leading BIPOC artists to showcase their creative expression through various methods of public-facing initiatives.
The latest artist to join the project is acclaimed Chicago-based artist Nina Chanel Abney who unveiled a sprawling new mural entitled Mull It Over that aims to spread a message of love in these trying times amid nationwide protests and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Abney, best known for her abstract-meets-figurative compositions of Black athletes and geometrical impositions, created a mural that features the wording: “STOP – DON’T KILL – LOVE – BLACK.” With this public art unveiling, the artist aims to raise awareness on the racial crisis and ongoing murder of Black men, women, and children by police. “My starting point for the mural was thinking about the things that have been going on in the last year, and historically, and about how it can’t be unity unless everyone is respected equally,” said Abney in a statement.
View the Mull It Over mural by Nina Chanel Abney above and head to OZ Art’s website to learn more about the ongoing ARkanvas program.
Elsewhere in art, Tokyo’s Parco Museum is gearing up to launch a major presentation featuring works by the late Swiss artist HR Giger and famed Japanese artist Hajime Sorayama.
