The Smart Museum of Art is honored to present a site-specific installation entitled Between Us by artist Nina Chanel Abney, on view from September 22, 2026, through July 11, 2027.

Commissioned as part of the Smart’s ongoing Threshold series, which brings large-scale installations of contemporary art annually to the Eunice Ratner Reception Gallery in the Museum’s lobby.

Nina Chanel Abney takes the most familiar images of American life, drawn from advertising, sports, cartoons, and the news, and turns them against themselves, using humor and accessibility to draw viewers in before the harder questions surface. For the commission at the Smart, Abney created a large-scale 70-feet-wide and 40-feet-high mural, entitled Between Us, that borrows the visual language of childhood instruction, such as diagrams, wall charts, and educational puzzles. The forms stay recognizable, but their reassurances curdle the longer one looks.

This site-specific installation will form the opening of Nina Chanel Abney’s major solo exhibition at the Smart, While Supplies Last, which will be on view March 23, 2027, through July 11, 2027.