Hamra Abbas has developed the concept “Every Color is a Shade of Black” over several years. She used cyan, magenta, and yellow (CMYK) to create black, symbolising the identity of the revered Islamic site, the Kaaba.⁠⁠

Abbas remembers thinking to herself, “If the three primary colors can create black, and the same primary colors in various combinations can create all the other colors, then one can surely conclude that every color is a shade of black”. ⁠

⁠Through this framework Abbas was able to connect various bodies of her work with the central theme of color: color as faith and ideology, color as race and identity, color as desire and beauty, color as gender and personal relationships. 

This book is published by COMO Museum of Art.