Nina Chanel Abney—the Chicago-born artist known for her dazzling and provocative paintings and collages—has said that her work is “easy to swallow but hard to digest.” It’s a pretty compelling encapsulation of an oeuvre that, according to an introduction to the artist’s work at an exhibit at the Nasher Museum in North Carolina, is “informed as much by mainstream news media as by animated cartoons, video games, hip-hop culture, celebrity websites and tabloid magazines.” Abney’s paintings are vibrantly eye-catching, overwhelmed with color, and yet also “explore some of the deeper recesses of human nature.”
So it’s no surprise that Abney’s collaborations with Nike and Jordan Brand have been uniformly striking and thought-provoking. Across a number of high-profile capsule wardrobe and footwear releases, the acclaimed artist has sneakily pushed the boundaries of the brands, taking timeless pieces and reimagining them to fascinating effect. It could be seen in the apparel collection she designed for Jordan Brand last summer, which Abney featured a retro cutout collage style that Jordan Brand Women’s manager Andrea Perez said at the time was “as much about the design of an idea as it is about the product.”
Abney’s latest collab with Jordan has been a long time time coming, and we’ve had a handful of tantalizing glimpses of its forthcoming arrival over the past several months. In January, Abney posted an image on Instagram of a deconstructed Air Jordan 3 heel piece with an embossed green Nike Air logo, which fans were quick to assume suggested an upcoming sneaker. Then, in March, she unveiled a finished model of the shoe itself: a gorgeous Jordan 3 wrapped front to back in panels of green suede and nubuck. This is the Air Jordan x Nina Chanel Abney drop that we have been waiting for, following her much-discussed take on the Jordan 2 that came out last year.
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