In her texturally rich paintings, Mickalene Thomas examines the popular characterization of black female identity, celebrity, and sexuality. On a back wall, you then see these photographs sliced up and rearranged in a series of collages. New York-based artist Mickalene Thomas is best known for her elaborate paintings composed of rhinestones, acrylic and enamel. Inhabiting the '70s-style genre of Blaxploitation, the subjects in Thomas's paintings and collages radiate sexuality, which has been interpreted by some as satire of misogynistic and racist tropes in media, including films and music associated with the Blaxploitation genre. View Mickalene Thomas’s 120 artworks on artnet. As a teenager, Mickalene and her mother had a very intimate and strenuous relationship due to her parents' addiction to drugs and Thomas dealing with her sexuality, which she documented in the short film Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Woman: A Portrait of My Mother.[6]. Mickalene Thomas (born January 28, 1971) is a contemporary African-American visual artist best known as a painter of complex works using rhinestones, acrylic, and enamel. Founded in 2009, Hyperallergic is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York. She has drawn inspiration from multiple artistic periods and cultural influences throughout Western art history, particularly the early modernists such as Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Édouard Manet, and Romare Bearden. It’s a moving piece, and its place at the center of the show casts Bush as the spiritual core of Thomas’s work, her mother as creator, the muse that all the others followed. [24] The original installation of the painting was in the window of The Modern, MoMA's renowned restaurant. But many clearly share her unique takes on broad subjects, including race, gender and femininity, beauty, and social presentations of self. In a survey of art experts, Thomas’ 2010 collage was named one of the most significant artworks of the 21st century. Discover (and save!) Hung around the gallery’s perimeter are Thomas’s large-scale photographs of her black female muses, including herself and her mother, whom she began photographing as an MFA student at Yale, as well as friends and lovers. [7] Thomas participated in a residency program at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York from 2000 to 2003. Mickalene Thomas, “Negress with Green Nails,” self-portrait (2005). Wan, at the end of her life, she talks candidly about her struggles with addiction and marital troubles. "[18], The many years that Thomas has spent studying art history, portrait painting, landscape painting, and still life has informed her work. Thomas has been awarded multiple prizes and grants, including the BOMB Magazine Honor (2015), MoCADA Artistic Advocacy Award (2015), AICA-USA Best Show in a Commercial Space Nationally, First Place (2014), Anonymous Was A Woman Grant (2013), Audience Award: Favorite Short, Second Annual Black Star Film Festival (2013), Brooklyn Museum Asher B. Durand Award (2012), Timehri Award for Leadership in the Arts (2010), Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant (2009), Pratt Institute Alumni Achievement Award (2009) and Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Grant (2007). Charged with organizing a group exhibition for the curated section of the Armory Show’s sister fair … [24] The women's positioning and posing is reminiscent of the subjects of Manet's piece, but the powerful gazes of all three women are fixed on the viewer. Thomas draws as much on Manet’s nudes as on the 1970s black-is-beautiful movement (think images of supermodel, Mickalene Thomas Photographs and tête-à-tête, e déjeuner sur l’herbe: les trois femmes noires, Muse: Mickalene Thomas Photographs and tête-à-tête, Mickalene Thomas Makes the White Cube a Domestic Oasis, Tilda Swinton Curates Photography Inspired by Virginia Woolf's Orlando, Text This Number in the US to Find Out Which Native Land You're Living On, Internet Sleuths Locate Mysterious Monolith in Utah, Thanksgiving Movies to Watch If You Aren't Into Celebrating Colonialism, The Baltimore Museum Wants to Diversify Its Collection; It Should Be Allowed to, The Best Books of 2020, According to the New York Public Library, Japan House Los Angeles Celebrates North American Debut of, Proudly powered by Newspack by Automattic. [26] Thomas then created a collage using the photograph as a base material and added other elements. "Mickalene Thomas Rediscovers Her Mother — and Her Muse". While we might be looking at them, they are also sizing us up. Thomas lived and attended school in Portland, Oregon, from the mid-1980s to the early '90s, studying pre-law and Theater Arts. In addition to her paintings, the Brooklyn-based Thomas works in the mediums of photography, collage, printmaking, video art, sculpture and installation art. "[11] Weems’ work not only played a role in Mickalene Thomas’ decision to switch studies and apply to Pratt Institute in New York but to use her experience and turn it into art. By emphasizing the women's striking presence and sensuality along with their assertive gazes, Thomas empowers these subjects, representing them as resilient, stunning women who command the spectator's attention. Landers, Sean. [5] Thomas describes the encounter in this way: "It was the first time I saw work by an African-American female artist that reflected myself and called upon a familiarity of family dynamics and sex and gender. In her texturally rich paintings, Mickalene Thomas examines the popular characterization of black female identity, celebrity, and sexuality. Thomas's collage work is inspired from popular art histories and movements, including Impressionism, Cubism, Dada and the Harlem Renaissance. Collage matters right now—at least according to the Volta NY special exhibition curators, artist Mickalene Thomas and collector and consultant Racquel Chevremont. "[28] Behind the women in both the photograph and the painting sits a Matisse sculpture that was situated behind the women in the sculpture garden. [24] The models who are the subjects of the original Le déjeuner sur l'herbe: Les Trois Femmes Noires photograph are all friends of Thomas which is common across many of her photographs. The majority of critical responses to Le déjeuner sur l'herbe: Les Trois Femmes Noires address the piece's interaction with post-black and post-feminist ideas. Below is a recent realized price for a piece of Mickalene Thomas collage art. Crafted with acrylic, rhinestones, and enamel, the vibrant interwoven patterns adorning Thomas’ work are inspired by her childhood in the 1970s.Thomas chooses to depict powerful women such as her mother, celebrities, and iconic art-historical figures. [25] Paying homage to Matisse by using his sculpture as a figure in her piece is not anomalous for Thomas as she often includes allusions to the iconic artist in her works. [1] Thomas's collage work is inspired from popular art histories and movements, including Impressionism, Cubism, Dada and the Harlem Renaissance. New Jersey-born, Brooklyn-based artist Mickalene Thomas is best known for her richly textured, rhinestone-encrusted paintings of African-American women and bright, collaged interiors.