Nina Chanel Abney Highlights the Black Fishing Community at Henry Art Gallery
The exhibition is on view in Seattle until March 3, 2023.
Acclaimed American artist Nina Chanel Abney unveiled a new solo exhibition at the University of Washington’s Henry Art Gallery.
Located at the institution’s Seattle campus, Fishing Was His Life presents a series of prints and paintings inspired by the culture and commerce of fishing within the African American community. Hidden beneath her deceptively simple geometric planes, Abney explores themes pertaining identity, politics, race and sexuality, particularly within coastal fisheries and the structural inequities that threaten Black livelihoods within the industry.
The exhibition marks the culmination of Abney’s 2020 Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship. The artist commented further:
“After seeing Gordon Parks’s 1943-44 series documenting the fishing industry along the Atlantic coast, I immediately wondered about who was omitted from that documentation: African American fishermen. I was inspired to investigate the history of Black Americans in the commercial fishing industry – a legacy that is obscured. Fishing has deep roots in the Black community, yet the voices of Black fishermen are vastly underrepresented and their businesses in decline.”
Fishing Was His Life will be on view until March 3, 2023.
In case you missed it, Pace founder Arne Glimcher unveiled a new gallery in Tribeca.
Henry Art Gallery
15th Ave NE & University of Washington
NE 41st St, Seattle, WA 98195
