Thomas’s Femmes Noires reframes the gallery space, allowing viewers to alter their behavior from what’s expected in an art institution.
Mickalene Thomas
Posted inArt
Channeling the Nuances of Motherhood Into Art
The debut exhibition at New Mexico State University explores the nuances of labor — in birth, in childrearing, and in intergenerational collaboration.
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Black Women Artists Stage a Performative Dinner at the Art Gallery of Ontario
Black Wimmin Artist hosts a historical gathering that aptly reflects forgotten Canadian art.
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Deconstructing Race in Western Painting
The most interesting part of this excellent exhibition is its presentation of black modernists, for here we enter relatively unfamiliar territory.
Posted inIn Brief
Mickalene Thomas Makes a Muse of Cardi B
Mickalene Thomas revealed a unique side of Cardi B, photographing the rap superstar for W Magazine’s “Art Issue.”
Posted inIn Brief
In Rihanna Photoshoot for Vogue Paris, Juergen Teller Cribs Imagery from Mickalene Thomas
What’s stranger is that the two artists are both represented by Lehmann Maupin and listed side-by-side on the gallery’s online roster.
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Artificial Childhoods, Fading Innocence, and Black Panthers at the Photography Show
Portraiture and history dominates this year’s The Photography Show, and there are many stand out works by Osamu Yokonami, Julie Blackmon, Ryan Vizzions, and others.
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Mickalene Thomas Makes Black Women the Protagonists of Their Own Stories
Positioning black women — artists, actresses, characters, and her own family — as mentors and muses, and as heroic figures in a lineage of their own, Thomas overrides oppressive narratives.
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Artists Embrace the Grayscale
Gray Matters, featuring 37 artists working almost exclusively in shades of gray, is a dazzling exhibition.
Posted inOpinion
Which Artist Should Create Obama’s Official Presidential Portrait?
In a perfect world, who would be the artist that captures the likeness of Obama for his official portrait?
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The Queer Art that Helped Define Post-Blackness
In his collection of essays, Derek Conrad Murray explores questions of post-blackness by drawing on the artworks of Glenn Ligon, Kehinde Wiley, Mickalene Thomas, and Kalup Linzy.
Posted inArt
A Sprawling Show of Artists as Social Critics
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Spanning several media, much of the work in Us Is Them makes social commentary from the perspective of underrepresented populations. Notably, the show features some of the biggest names in contemporary African-American art, bringing the focus on the fraught nature of black existence in the US.