In Big Butch Energy/Synergy, Nina Chanel Abney brings together recent large-scale works that examine Black identity and queerness through coming-of-age narratives. The artist broaches these subjects playfully, creating approachable images that focus on her personal experiences as a masculine-of-center woman. Abney executes these works primarily in collage, streamlining the picture plane with a bold, graphic style that highlights the subtleties of the expressions and poses of her dynamic figures. Working on a massive format, she invites viewers to experience the collage’s rich pictorial spaces on the scale of history painting.