MICKALENE THOMAS
All About Love
by Mickalene Thomas
D.A.P. 224 pages, $60.
KNOWN for her large-scale collage portraits of Black women, the critically acclaimed artist Mickalene Thomas was born in Camden, New Jersey, in 1971. Introduced to art as a child by her mother, fashion model Sandra Bush, she earned her BFA from New York’s Pratt Institute and her MFA from the Yale School of Art. She has accepted various artist residences and received numerous prizes. She now lives and works in Brooklyn with her partner and frequent model Racquel Chevremont.
The influences and references in Thomas’ work range from the history of European portraiture and the collages of Romare Bearden and Henri Matisse to Black popular culture, “Blaxploitation” films, and the interior design style of the 1970s. Filled with vibrant colors, elaborate patterns and visual rhythms, and her signature rhinestone ornamentation, her work addresses issues of beauty, race, and the complexities of Black and female identity. Author and gay activist Darnell L. Moore writes: “She invites us to contemplate the reality that to be Black and a woman is to live queerly: to rebel against the status quo; to reimagine beyond the racialized heteronorm; to thrive and conjure new ways of being amid anti-Black racism and misogynoir; and to embody freedom despite every restriction they face.”
Reginald Harris is a poet and writer based in Brooklyn.
