Thomas presents a selection of works on paper in an intimate, salon style. Thomas has chosen this mode of presentation as an echo, not only of the early Modernist salons made famous by the likes of Gertrude Stein, but also as a reflection of the array of influences and sources that collect on her own studio walls. Seen together, these many pieces, including a series of new large-scale, Polaroid photographs, drawings, and an array of collages, help to reveal an aspect of Thomas’s work that encompasses the multiplicity of her artistic and studio practice. Although Thomas has noted that not every painting has a collage, every image starts with a photograph, staged in a wood-paneled corner of her studio, and which directly informs and often serves as the basis of her elaborate, rhinestone-clad paintings that explore notions of black female beauty and identity.
Mickalene Thomas was born in Camden, NJ in 1971. Thomas earned a BFA in painting at Pratt Institute in 2000 and a MFA at the Yale University School of Art in 2002. In 2003, the artist participated in a residency at the Studio Museum in Harlem, NY. Thomas has exhibited extensively in both solo and group exhibitions including “Americans Now” at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C. (2010); “The Global Africa Project” at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY (2010); and “Mama Bush: One of a Kind Two” at the Hara Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2011). Forthcoming exhibitions include “30 Americans” at the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C. (2011); “Origin of the Universe,” a solo exhibition at the Santa Monica Museum of Art (2012); and a solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 2012. Thomas’s work can be found in significant museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Overland Park, KS, the Rubell Collection in Miami, FL, and the American Art Museum, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Mickalene Thomas lives and works in Brooklyn.
Shown: "Tamika sur une chaise longue," 2008, linoleum, photograph, color-aide on wood panel, 6.5 x 8.25 inches.
New York City, NY; NYC