Three of my paintings in one Tribeca apartment

Never Enough went first. It's the black-on-white diptych from 2016, 6ft x 5ft over two panels, the one I painted in my childhood bedroom and hung over the dresser there. It found its home in Erin Lichy's apartment in Tribeca, over the bed, and it's the painting you can see in E! Online's tour of the place from February 2023. It's been over the bed since.

Then Pendulum

Pendulum is from November 2018: black thrown over white, thick blots and long flicks with the drips running down, 6ft x 5ft. The title is the motion, the arm swinging and the paint going where the swing sends it. It hung in the living room for Thanksgiving that year and then sat for a while. It went to the same apartment, and it's the painting in the background in season one of The Real Housewives of New York City.

Then the ten-footer

No. 040 is this year's: two panels, 10ft of wall and 4ft tall, black poured over white with long arcs and fine spatter running the whole length. It went up first on the painted brick at the Mezcalum office, over the long table, and that's where it was photographed. It came down this year and went to Tribeca to join the other two, and it's due to appear on the show — the second painting of mine in it. When it airs I'll add it to On the wall.

What I take from it

Three paintings, from 2016, 2018 and 2025, in one home. None of them were made to go together and they do. I think that's because they're all the same idea — black on white, made fast, with the whole arm — carried across nine years. If you own one of the black-and-white works and you're thinking about a second, that's the case for it: they were never a series, and they hang like one.

All three have found their home and stay in the catalogue for the record. The black-and-white pieces that are still available are No. 034, No. 010, No. 049 and No. 048.

About the author. Charles Black is a self-taught painter working in acrylic on canvas from a two-room studio at the back of a warehouse in Queens, New York, and the founder of ABB Collective. He has been posting the work as @abstractbyblack since 2022 and has placed paintings in bars, offices and private homes around New York. Questions about anything here: charles.s.black@gmail.com.