Mickalene Thomas

Mickalene Thomas was born on January 28, 1971, in Camden, New Jersey. She was raised in Hillside and East Orange.THOMAS, MICKALENE, and SEAN LANDERS. "MICKALENE THOMAS." BOMB, no. 116 (2011): 30-38 She was raised by her mother Sandra "Mama Bush" Bush, who, at 6'1" tall, modeled in the 1970s.{{Cite book|title=Brooklyn Street Style: The No-Rules Guide to Fashion|last=Sacharow|first=Anya|publisher=Abrams Image|year=2015|isbn=9781419717956|location=New York|pages=209}} She exposed Mickalene and her brother to art by enrolling them in after-school programs at the Newark Museum, and the Henry Street Settlement in New York.Landers, Sean. "Mickalene Thomas." Artists in Conversation. BOMB Magazine, Summer 2011. Thomas' mother raised her and her brother Buddhists. 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.Rosenberg, Karen. "Mickalene Thomas Rediscovers Her Mother — and Her Muse", The New York Times, September 29, 2012.

Thomas lived and attended school in Portland, Oregon, from the mid-1980s to the early '90s, studying pre-law and Theater Arts. Thomas received her BFA from Pratt Institute in 2000 and her MFA from Yale School of Art in 2002.{{Cite web|url=http://mickalenethomas.com/resume_pdf/Mickalene_Thomas_Resume.pdf|title=mickalenethomas.com}} Thomas participated in a residency program at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York from 2000 to 2003.[https://www.studiomuseum.org/artists-in-residence "Artists-in-Residence"], Studio Museum in Harlem, Retrieved 2 December 2018. She also participated in a residency in Giverny, France at the Versailles Foundation Munn Artists Program.{{Cite web|url=http://www.lehmannmaupin.com/artists/mickalene-thomas|title=Mickalene Thomas - Artists - Lehmann Maupin|last=exhibit-e.com|website=www.lehmannmaupin.com|access-date=2017-04-24}} She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

File:Left Behind 2 Again by Mickalene Thomas, 2012.jpg]]

During her early career, she found herself immersed in the growing culture of DIY artists and musicians, leading her to start her own body of work. Mickalene noted that when she became an artist, fashion was always "in the back of my mind" as a source of inspiration. She was influenced by Jacob Lawrence, William H. Johnson, and Romare Bearden, but most influential to her was the work of Carrie Mae Weems, especially her Kitchen Table and Ain't Jokin series, which were part of a retrospective held at the Portland Art Museum in 1994. 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."{{Cite news|url=https://artomity.art/2016/12/15/mickalene-thomas/|title=Mickalene Thomas|last=Artomity Magazine|date=December 15, 2016|work=Artomity}} Weems' work not only played a role in Mickalene Thomas' decision to switch studies and apply to Pratt Institute in New York but in her using her experience and turning it into art.Museum, Brooklyn. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qti-R2YqKnw "In Conversation: Mickalene Thomas and Carrie Mae Weems"]. YouTube, January 11, 2013. Thomas has also stated that Faith Ringgold provided a strong influencing in establishing Thomas' path.{{Cite web|date=2020-04-15|title=For Mickalene Thomas, Success Is About Elevating Others|url=https://elephant.art/mickalene-thomas-charlotte-jansen-interview-15042020/|access-date=2021-03-11|website=ELEPHANT|language=en-US}}

Her depictions of African-American women explore notions of celebrity and identity while engaging with the representation of black femininity and black power. 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. Women in provocative poses dominate the picture plane and are surrounded by decorative patterns inspired by her childhoodDailey, Meghan, "In the Studio: Mickalene Thomas", Art + Auction, March 2009. as in Left Behind 2 Again from 2012, in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art. Her subjects are often well-known women like Eartha Kitt, Whitney Houston, Oprah Winfrey, and Condoleezza Rice.{{Cite news|last=Kino|first=Carol|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/arts/design/12kino.html|title=A Confidence Highlighted in Rhinestones|work=The New York Times|date=April 7, 2009|access-date=2017-03-12}} Her portrait of Michelle Obama was the first individual portrait done of the First Lady and was exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery's Americans Now show.Capps, Kriston. [http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/politics/First-First-Lady-Portrait-in-DC-101255694.html 1st First Lady Portrait in D.C.]. NBC Washington. August 22, 2010

In her 2017 solo exhibition "Mentors, Muses, and Celebrities" at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (CAM),{{Cite web|url=https://camstl.org/exhibitions/mickalene-thomas-mentors-muses-and-celebrities/|title=Mickalene Thomas: Mentors, Muses, and Celebrities|date=2017-12-31}} Thomas created multi-media installations that centered black women in the narrative-arcs of their own stories. According to art critic Rikki Byrd: "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."{{Cite journal|last=Byrd|first=Rikki|date=November 27, 2017|title=Mickalene Thomas Makes Black Women the Protagonists of Their Own Stories|url=https://hyperallergic.com/413543/mickalene-thomas-makes-black-women-the-protagonists-of-their-own-stories/|journal=Hyperallergic}}

The many years that Thomas has spent studying art history, portrait painting, landscape painting, and still life has informed her work. 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 and Édouard Manet as well as more contemporary influences such as Romare Bearden and Pam Grier.{{Cite web|title=Mickalene Thomas {{!}} Artist Profile|url=https://nmwa.org/art/artists/mickalene-thomas/|access-date=2021-03-11|website=NMWA|language=en-US}} She models her figures on the classical poses and abstract settings popularized by these modern artists as a way to reclaim agency for women who have been represented as objects to be desired or subjugated.{{Cite journal|last=Landers|first=Sean|date=Summer 2011|title=Mickalene Thomas|journal=Bomb|number=116|pages=30–38}}

File:Mama Bush II, Keep the Home Fires Burnin', 2006, Mickalene Thomas at Rubell DC 2022.jpeg in 2022, an example of Thomas' work with rhinestones]]

Thomas is known for her elaborate mixed-media paintings composed of rhinestones, acrylic, and enamel that present a "complex vision of what it means to be a woman and expands common definitions of beauty."{{Cite web|url=https://pier24.org/lecture/mickalene-thomas/|title=Mickalene Thomas|website=Pier 24|access-date=2019-03-14}} Rhinestones serve as an added layer of meaning and a metaphor for artifice. Rhinestones accentuate specific elements of each painting, while subtly confronting our assumptions of what is feminine and what defines a woman, specifically black women. According to the Financial Times, "Proclaiming her own visibility and that of other women of colour is at the heart of Thomas's practice, which inserts the black female body into art history by placing her muses in iconic poses and settings."{{Cite news|work=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/40f8bd16-ab1c-11e8-89a1-e5de165fa619 |date=August 31, 2018 |first=Julia |last=Belcove |title=Artist Mickalene Thomas: 'It was always a political statement': The US artist and photographer on introducing the black female body into art history}} Thomas, and curators of her work, see Thomas's status as a black lesbian as part of what makes her gaze different from that of white male artists in history.

Thomas's subjects are virtually always women of color; a means to portray and empower the women and celebrate their culture and beauty—sometimes by incorporating them into iconic Western paintings. As a member of, and inspired by, the Post-Black Art movement, Thomas' work redefines perceptions of race, gender, and sexuality. Thomas blurs the distinction between object and subject, concrete and abstract, real and imaginary. Her subjects often look directly at the viewer, challenging the dominance of the male gaze in art. This assertive portrayal indicates that the models are at ease in their own skin, thus challenging the stereotype of the silent and inferior woman objectified by the viewer's gaze. In addition, seemingly insignificant decisions (like not straightening the figures' hair) have the important effect of encouraging women of color to accept themselves as they are and not conform to a particular ideology of beauty imposed by society.{{Cite journal|last=Murray|first=Derek Conrad|date=March 2014|title=Mickalene Thomas|journal=American Art|volume=28|issue=1|pages=9–15|doi=10.1086/676624|s2cid=193111587|issn=1073-9300}}

Thomas's work is also distinctive in its foregrounding of queer identity; she is a queer woman of color representing women of color in a way that emphasizes their agency and erotic beauty. 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. The sitters have the control and power of the gaze, and when this exchange is between women, it subverts the traditional dominance of the male gaze in art and visual culture. Thomas's queer identity is foregrounded, for example, in her painting and print edition entitled Sleep: Deux femmes noires (2012 and 2013), in which we see two female bodies intertwined in an embrace, on a sofa, thus highlighting for her audience the femininity, beauty, and sexuality of women lovers.{{Cite journal|last=Valdez|first=Crystal|date=2012|title=Visions|journal=Art in America|volume=100|issue=9|pages=114–1212}}

Thomas has collaborated with the fashion house Dior on several occasions.{{Cite web|last=Scruggs|first=Dana|date=2019-12-03|title=The Rise and Rise of Mickalene Thomas|url=https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a29762435/mickalene-thomas-artist-interview/|access-date=2021-03-11|website=Town & Country|language=en-US}} Including designing handbags and her own design of the classic Dior Bar Jacket.

Thomas' work was included in the 2022 exhibition Women Painting Women at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.{{cite web |title=Women Painting Women |url=https://www.themodern.org/exhibition/women-painting-women |website=Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth |access-date=16 May 2022 |language=en}}

[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/mickalene-thomas-ushering-new-wave-contemporary-art-180967496/ {{Lang|fr|Le déjeuner sur l'herbe: Les Trois Femmes Noires}}] is a painting created by African-American visual artist Mickalene Thomas. The title of the painting translates from French as The luncheon on the grass: The Three Black Women. The painting is a contemporary take on Édouard Manet's 1863 painting entitled {{Lang|fr|Le dejeuner sur l'herbe}}.{{Cite web|url=https://observer.com/2010/04/a-window-on-art/|title=A Window on Art|date=2010-04-21|website=Observer|language=en|access-date=2019-12-05}} Thomas' piece portrays three black women adorned with rich colors, vintage patterned clothing, and radiant Afro-styled hair.{{Cite web|url=https://ago.ca/agoinsider/mickalene-thomass-masterpiece|title=Mickalene Thomas's masterpiece|website=Art Gallery of Ontario|language=en|access-date=2019-12-05}} 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 created the painting, her largest piece at the time, in 2010 after being commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City to create a display piece for 53rd street window of the museum's restaurant The Modern.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lehmannmaupin.com/press/a-sky-filled-with-shooting-stars|title= A Sky Filled With Shooting Stars – Press – Lehmann Maupin|website=www.lehmannmaupin.com|access-date=2019-12-05}}

{{Lang|fr|Le déjeuner sur l'herbe: Les Trois Femmes Noires}} was created in three stages.{{Cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/mickalene-thomas-ushering-new-wave-contemporary-art-180967496/|title=How Mickalene Thomas Is Ushering in a New Wave of Contemporary Art|last=Ates|first=Tiffany Y.|website=Smithsonian|language=en|access-date=2019-12-05}} First, Thomas photographed three models in the sculpture garden of the MoMA to make the piece "site-specific". Thomas then created a collage using the photograph as a base material and added other elements. This collage now hangs in the lobby of the P.S.1, an extension of the MoMA in Queens that houses unconventional contemporary artwork.{{Cite web|url=https://www.moma.org/ps1|title=MoMA PS1|website=www.moma.org|language=en|access-date=2019-12-05}} The third, painted version was based on the original photograph but composed of collage-like painted segments on wood panels and rendered in acrylic, oil, enamel, and rhinestones.{{Cite web|url=https://afropunk.com/2014/01/feature-mickalene-thomas/|title=Feature: Mickalene Thomas|date=2014-01-10|website=AFROPUNK|language=en-US|access-date=2019-12-05}}

The painting stands 10 feet tall and extends 24 feet wide. Thomas has stated that she chose the massive size of the painting to physically and symbolically "take up space" in spaces that were traditionally dominated by white male artists. The original installation of the painting was in the window of The Modern, MoMA's renowned restaurant. While on display here, the piece was visible every hour of the day because it could be seen by passersby on the street; this accessibility made {{Lang|fr|Le déjeuner sur l'herbe: Les Trois Femmes Noires}} Thomas' most public piece yet.

The subjects of the painting are three rhinestone-studded, richly dressed women of color. The models who are the subjects of the original {{Lang|fr|Le déjeuner sur l'herbe: Les Trois Femmes Noires}} photograph are all friends of Thomas which is common across many of her photographs. All three women are fully clothed– compared to the nude female subjects in Manet's version of the scene– in richly patterned dresses that Thomas herself designed, and they sit upon fabrics staged by the artists. Many vintage patterns are used throughout the work. Thomas claims that this juxtaposition of patterns serves to represent the "amalgamation of all of the different things we are as Americans." Behind the women in both the photograph and the painting sits a Matisse sculpture that was situated behind the women in the sculpture garden.

{{Lang|fr|Le déjeuner sur l'herbe: Les Trois Femmes Noires}} is unmistakably based on Édouard Manet's 1863 painting {{Lang|fr|Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe}}. Manet's piece, which caused intense controversy at the time of its creation, exhibits two undressed women who are sitting comfortably with two formally dressed men at a picnic. While one of the nude women is crouched in the background, the three other subjects lounge in the foreground. The female subject in the foreground is looking out, meeting the gaze of the viewer, while the two men next to her are casually looking around.

In Thomas' version of the painting, the three subjects in the foreground are all women of color who are fully clothed in colorful dresses with patterns reminiscent of the 1970s, and all three of the women's gazes confront the viewer. The woman in the background of Manet's scene is represented in Thomas' piece by a Matisse sculpture in front of which she positioned the models in the photograph taken in the MoMA sculpture garden. 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. Thomas has cited Romare Bearden as an influence.{{Cite journal|last=Landers|first=Sean|date=Summer 2011|journal=Bomb|volume=116|issue=116|pages=30–38|jstor=23037796|title=Mickalene Thomas}} In addition to these explicit allusions, {{Lang|fr|Le déjeuner sur l'herbe: Les Trois Femmes Noires}}, along with many of Thomas' other pieces, is inspired by Dada, cubism, and the Harlem Renaissance.{{Cite web|url=https://ago.ca/exhibitions/mickalene-thomas-femmes-noires|title=Mickalene Thomas: Femmes Noires|website=Art Gallery of Ontario|language=en|access-date=2019-12-05}}

The majority of critical responses to {{Lang|fr|Le déjeuner sur l'herbe: Les Trois Femmes Noires}} address the piece's interaction with post-black and post-feminist ideas.

Thomas' work has received criticism common of post-black art claiming that, through the overtly sensual representation of her subjects, she is reveling "in the glittery spoils of success at the expense of meaningful social engagement."{{Cite journal|last=Murray|first=Derek Conrad|date=2014-03-01|title=Mickalene Thomas: Afro-Kitsch and the Queering of Blackness|journal=American Art|volume=28|issue=1|pages=9–15|doi=10.1086/676624|s2cid=193111587|issn=1073-9300}}

Proponents of her work, however, believe that her approach to representing her subjects "reflects the shift in black art from didactic political narrative to post-black satire."

Regarding the way in which the subjects meet the viewer's gaze, Seattle Art Museum curator Catharina Manchanda remarked, "these women are so grounded and perfectly comfortable in their own space... While we might be looking at them, they are also sizing us up."

MoMA curator Klaus Biesenbach who originally commissioned the painting for the 53rd street window display explained that he requested Thomas largely because "her treatment of surfaces as complex layers of material, lacquer, rhinestone and paint corresponds with the libidinous nature of the contents she depicts."

Since the original installment of this painting wherein the piece was exhibited as a singular display, {{Lang|fr|Le déjeuner sur l'herbe: Les Trois Femmes Noires}} has been included in a number of exhibits across North America including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Seattle Art Museum,{{Cite web|url=https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/visual-arts/seattle-art-museums-figuring-history-a-powerful-look-at-who-is-represented-in-art/|title=Seattle Art Museum's 'Figuring History' a powerful look at who is represented in art|date=2018-02-14|website=The Seattle Times|language=en-US|access-date=2019-12-05}} and the Baltimore Museum of Art.{{Cite web|url=https://artbma.org/exhibitions/a_moments_pleasure.html?slug=2019_mickalene-thomas-a-moment-s-pleasure|title=Mickalene Thomas: A Moment's Pleasure|website=Baltimore Museum of Art|language=en|access-date=2019-12-05}}

[https://artgallery.yale.edu/exhibitions/exhibition/mickalene-thomas-portrait-unlikely-space Portrait of an Unlikely Space] is an exhibition co-organized by Mickalene Thomas that was on display at the Yale University Art Gallery from September 8, 2023 to January 7, 2024. The multi-gallery installation depicts domestic surroundings reminiscent of a moment in U.S. history that had never before been explicitly represented in her work: the pre-Emancipation era. The exhibition featured a selection of early American portraits of Black women, men, and children—from miniatures and daguerreotypes to silhouettes on paper and engravings in books—hanging on walls, standing within cases, and resting atop furniture. Alongside these small-scale objects, a group of artworks by Thomas and other contemporary artists in a wide array of media were situated within a homelike environment.{{Cite web |title=Mickalene Thomas / Portrait of an Unlikely Space {{!}} Yale University Art Gallery |url=https://artgallery.yale.edu/exhibitions/exhibition/mickalene-thomas-portrait-unlikely-space |access-date=2024-04-17 |website=artgallery.yale.edu |language=en}}

In 2025 Thomas' most recent exhibition titled All About Love will begin to travel between three sites. It begins at The Broad in Los Angeles and will travel to the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, and end at the Hayward Gallery in London.{{Cite web |last=Lange |first=Maggie |date=2024-11-11 |title=Mickalene Thomas Always Starts With a Clean Studio |url=https://www.thecut.com/article/mickalene-thomas-barnes-museum-all-about-love.html |access-date=2025-03-02 |website=The Cut |language=en}}

In addition to her paintings, the Brooklyn-based Thomas works in the mediums of photography, collage, printmaking, video art, sculpture and installation art. Her works, in particular the Odalisque series (2007), have been interpreted as "investigating the artist-model relationship [...] but from an updated perspective of female inter-subjectivity and same-sex desire." (La Leçon d'amour, 2008){{cite book|title=Art Now, Vol. 3: A cutting-edge selection of today's most exciting artists|year=2008|publisher=Taschen|isbn=9783836505116|pages=452|editor=Hans Werner Holzwarth}} She has restaged themes and symbolism with a long lineage in Western art in her references to the odalisque representation of women in exotic settings.{{Cite journal|year=2008|title=Material Stealth|url=http://mickalenethomas.com/press_pdfs/2008/Material_Stealth.pdf|journal=Wound|issue=4|pages=272–277}} She experimented with institutional images in FBI/Serial Portraits (2008), based on mug shots of African-American women.{{Cite news|url=http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_310/illusion.html|title=Illusion, mystique and plain beauty in sparkling paintings|last=Wright|first=Jeffrey Cyphers|date=April 3–9, 2009|work=Downtown Express|access-date=March 12, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110304041217/http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_310/illusion.html|archive-date=March 4, 2011|url-status=dead}} In 2012, Mickalene Thomas: Origin of the Universe, her first major solo museum exhibition, opened at the Santa Monica Museum of Art and traveled to the Brooklyn Museum. This show, the title of which references Gustave Courbet's 1866 painting {{Lang|fr|L'Origine du monde}}, showcased a series of recent portraits, landscapes and interiors.

Thomas has collaborated with musician Solange, creating the cover art for her 2013 EP True.{{Cite web|url=http://www.complex.com/style/2013/03/solange-interviews-collaborator-mickalene-thomas-for-opening-ceremony|title=Solange Interviews Collaborator Mickalene Thomas for Opening Ceremony|last=Ray|first=Justin|date=23 March 2013|publisher=Complex|access-date=11 March 2017}} The cover began as a portrait of Solange the artist herself commissioned.{{Cite news|url=http://www.nola.com/arts/index.ssf/2017/01/solange_knowles_michelle_obama.html|title=Artist Mickalene Thomas discusses Michelle Obama and Solange Knowles|last=MacCash|first=Doug|date=18 January 2017|work=NOLA.com|access-date=11 March 2017}} Thomas and Solange also collaborated on a trailer for the music video for the song "Losing You."{{Cite web|url=http://blog.openingceremony.com/entry.asp?pid=7590|title=Solange Interviews Mickalene Thomas|date=19 March 2013|website=Opening Ceremony Blog|access-date=11 March 2017}}

Her short film Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Woman, created for her exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, is about Sandra Bush, her mother and longtime muse. In it, Sandra talks about careers, relationships, beauty, and her fatal illness. The film made its television debut on HBO on February 24, 2014, and has run regularly since.

In 2019, Rolls-Royce auctioned a custom-designed Phantom luxury car at Sotheby's to benefit the global AIDS-eradication charity (RED); the winning bidder had the opportunity to decorate the vehicle with a unique wrap made by Thomas.Helen Holmes (3 December 2019), [https://observer.com/2019/12/rolls-royce-sothebys-auction-mickalene-thomas-miami-art-week/ Rolls-Royce Designed by Mickalene Thomas to Hit the Auction Block at Sotheby's] Observer.

In 2020, Thomas designed a version of Dior's signature 1947 bar jacket for a cruise collection show held in Marrakech.Angelica Villa (25 January 2023), [https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/dior-mickalene-thomas-paris-fashion-week-couture-stage-1234655063/ Dior Taps Mickalene Thomas for Couture Stage in Paris] ARTnews.

For Dior's haute couture show at the Musée Rodin in January 2023, the brand's creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri commissioned Thomas to create the stage design that served as the show's backdrop. Mounted on the walls surrounding the museum's runway floor were collaged black and white images of 13 Black and mixed-race female performers, including Josephine Baker, Diahann Carroll, Marpessa Dawn, Lena Horne, and Nina Simone. Their images, which were overlaid with pink and yellow forms, featured embroidered details produced by the Mumbai-based artisan group Chanakya ateliers and the Chanakya School of Craft.

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Thomas has been awarded multiple prizes and grants, including the BOMB Magazine Honor (2015),{{Cite web |last=Valentine |first=Victoria L. |date=2015-12-27 |title=The Year in Black Art: April 2015 |url=https://www.culturetype.com/2015/12/27/the-year-in-black-art-april-2015/ |access-date=2025-03-03 |website=Culture Type |language=en-US}} MoCADA Artistic Advocacy Award (2015),{{Cite web |last=Furfaro |first=Danielle |date=2015-05-18 |title=MoCADA celebrates 15 years with masquerade ball • Brooklyn Paper |url=https://www.brooklynpaper.com/mocada-celebrates-15-years-with-masquerade-ball/#:~:text=Get%20the%20Full%20Story,the%20Ambassador%20strike%20a%20pose.&text=Bookended:%20Outgoing%20Brooklyn%20Museum%20director,stands%20with%20two%20masked%20strangers.&text=Getting%20the%20goods:%20Baker%20Amber,good%20time%20at%20the%20gala.&text=Shine%20on:%20A%20group%20of,African%20Diasporan%20Arts'%20masquerade%20ball. |access-date=2025-03-03 |website=www.brooklynpaper.com |language=en-US}} AICA-USA Best Show in a Commercial Space Nationally, First Place (2014), Anonymous Was A Woman Grant (2013),{{Cite web |title=Award News |url=https://www.anonymouswasawoman.org/news |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=Anonymous Was A Woman |language=en-US}} Audience Award: Favorite Short, Second Annual Black Star Film Festival (2013),{{Cite web |title='Things Never Said,' 'Homegoings' Anchor 2013 BlackStar Film Festival Awards - Blavity |url=https://blavity.com/things-never-said-homegoings-anchor-2013-blackstar-film-festival-awards |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=Blavity News & Entertainment |language=en}} Brooklyn Museum Asher B. Durand Award (2012), Timehri Award for Leadership in the Arts (2010),{{Cite web |title=Trenton exhibit highlights Newark's growing arts scene |url=https://whyy.org/articles/trenton-exhibit-highlights-newarks-growing-arts-scene/#:~:text=Camden-born%20Mickalene%20Thomas,%20educated%20at%20Pratt%20and,of%20braided%20and%20corn-rowed%20hair,%20revealing%20her |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=WHYY |language=en-US}} Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant (2009),{{Cite web |last=Pratt News |date=2010-02-09 |title=Pratt Fine Arts Professors and Alumna Win Joan Mitchell Foundation Grants |url=https://www.pratt.edu/news/pratt_fine_arts_professors_and_alumna_win_joan_mitchell_foundation_grants/ |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=Pratt Institute |language=en-us}} Pratt Institute Alumni Achievement Award (2009){{Cite web |last=Pratt News |date=2009-09-10 |title=Pratt Announces 2009 Alumni Achievement Award Winners |url=https://www.pratt.edu/news/pratt_announces_2009_alumni_achievement_award_winners/ |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=Pratt Institute |language=en-us}} and Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Grant (2007).{{Cite web |title=Rema Hort Mann Foundation {{!}} 2022 Emerging Artist Grant |url=https://molly.nyc/rhmf2022 |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=krause co. |language=en-US}}

Thomas has held residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Madison, Maine (2013) (resident faculty); Versailles Foundation Munn Artists Program, Giverny, France (2011); Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, Colorado (2010) (painting faculty); Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2003); Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont (2001); and Yale Norfolk Summer of Music and Art, Norfolk, Connecticut (1999).

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• Panthera (2002), Studio Museum in Harlem, New York{{cite web |title=Panthera |url=https://studiomuseum.org/node/60887 |website=StudioMuseum |date=31 August 2017 |publisher=Studio Museum in Harlem |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221224164523/https://studiomuseum.org/node/60887 |archive-date=24 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Instant Gratification (from Brawling Spitfire Wrestling series) (2005), Rubell Museum, Miami/Washington, D.C.{{cite web |title=Instant Gratification (from Brawling Spitfire Wrestling series) |url=https://rubellmuseum.org/30a-mickalene-thomas |website=Rubell Museum |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221030190325/https://rubellmuseum.org/30a-mickalene-thomas |archive-date=30 October 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Rumble (from Brawling Spitfire Wrestling series) (2005), Art Institute of Chicago{{cite web |title=Rumble (from Brawling Spitfire Wrestling Series) |url=https://www.artic.edu/artworks/191505/rumble-from-brawling-spitfire-wrestling-series |website=ArtIC |publisher=Art Institute of Chicago |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814065742/https://www.artic.edu/artworks/191505/rumble-from-brawling-spitfire-wrestling-series |archive-date=14 August 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Mama Bush II, Keep the Home Fires Burnin' (2006), Rubell Museum, Miami/Washington, D.C.{{cite web |title=Mickalene Thomas |url=https://rubellmuseum.org/2019-mickalene-thomas |website=Rubell Museum |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128171718/https://rubellmuseum.org/2019-mickalene-thomas |archive-date=28 January 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Remember Me (2006), Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut{{cite web |title=Remember Me |url=https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/128053 |website=Yale Art Gallery |publisher=Yale University |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516113430/https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/128053 |archive-date=16 May 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Can't We Just Sit Down and Talk It Over? (2006-2007), Art Institute of Chicago;{{cite web |title=Can't We Just Sit Down and Talk It Over? |url=https://www.artic.edu/artworks/191506/can-t-we-just-sit-down-and-talk-it-over |website=ArtIC |publisher=Art Institute of Chicago |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200820193256/https://www.artic.edu/artworks/191506/can-t-we-just-sit-down-and-talk-it-over |archive-date=20 August 2020 |url-status=live}} and Studio Museum in Harlem, New York{{cite web |title=Can't We Just Sit Down and Talk It Over? |url=https://studiomuseum.org/collection-item/cant-we-just-sit-down-and-talk-it-over |website=StudioMuseum |date=2 January 2019 |publisher=Studio Museum in Harlem |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221224164123/https://studiomuseum.org/collection-item/cant-we-just-sit-down-and-talk-it-over |archive-date=24 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• A Little Taste Outside of Love (2007), Brooklyn Museum, New York{{cite web |title=A Little Taste Outside of Love |url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/5044 |website=Brooklyn Museum |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221125134949/https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/5044 |archive-date=25 November 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Lovely Six Foota (2007), International Center of Photography, New York{{cite web |title=Lovely Six Foota |url=https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/objects/lovely-six-foota |website=ICP |date=25 February 2016 |publisher=International Center of Photography |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205193036/https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/objects/lovely-six-foota |archive-date=5 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Madame Mama Bush in Black and White (2007), Brooklyn Museum, New York{{cite web |title=Madame Mama Bush in Black and White |url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/197579 |website=Brooklyn Museum |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220422183714/https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/197579 |archive-date=22 April 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Sista Sista Lady Blue (2007), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art{{cite web |title=Sista Sista Lady Blue |url=https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2008.397/ |website=SFMoMA |publisher=San Francisco Museum of Modern Art |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190930222317/https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2008.397/ |archive-date=30 September 2019 |url-status=live}}
• Oprah Winfrey (2007-2008), National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.{{cite web |title=Oprah Winfrey |url=https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2013.13.1? |website=NPG |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404215335/https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2013.13.1 |archive-date=4 April 2019 |url-status=live}}
• Din Avec la Main Dans le Miroir (2008), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia{{cite web |title=Din Avec la Main Dans le Miroir |url=https://www.pafa.org/museum/collection/item/din-avec-la-main-dans-le-miroir |website=PAFA |date=28 December 2014 |publisher=Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210725132201/https://www.pafa.org/museum/collection/item/din-avec-la-main-dans-le-miroir |archive-date=25 July 2021 |url-status=live}}
• Michelle O (2008), Baltimore Museum of Art;{{cite web |title=Michelle O |url=https://collection.artbma.org/objects/74977/michelle-o? |website=ArtBMA |publisher=Baltimore Museum of Art |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221224162116/https://collection.artbma.org/objects/74977/michelle-o? |archive-date=24 December 2022 |url-status=live}} Museum of Fine Arts, Boston;{{cite web |title=Michelle O |url=https://collections.mfa.org/objects/529979/michelle-o? |website=MFA |publisher=Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221224162032/https://collections.mfa.org/objects/529979/michelle-o |archive-date=24 December 2022 |url-status=live}} and National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.{{cite web |title=Michelle Obama |url=https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2010.56? |website=NPG |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220514170112/https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2010.56 |archive-date=14 May 2022 |url-status=live}}
• A Moment's Pleasure in Black and White (2008), Whitney Museum, New York{{cite web |title=A Moment's Pleasure in Black and White |url=https://whitney.org/collection/works/35444 |website=Whitney |publisher=Whitney Museum |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200509020926/https://whitney.org/collection/works/35444 |archive-date=9 May 2020 |url-status=live}}
• Portrait of Qusuquzah (2008), Minneapolis Institute of Art{{cite web |title=Portrait of Qusuquzah |url=https://collections.artsmia.org/art/125779/portrait-of-qusuquzah-mickalene-thomas |website=ArtsMIA |publisher=Minneapolis Institute of Art |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221030205718/https://collections.artsmia.org/art/125779/portrait-of-qusuquzah-mickalene-thomas |archive-date=30 October 2022 |url-status=live}}
• A-E-I-O-U and Sometimes Y (2009), National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.{{cite web |title=A-E-I-O-U and Sometimes Y |url=https://nmwa.org/art/collection/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y/ |website=NMWA |publisher=National Museum of Women in the Arts |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221206181212/https://nmwa.org/art/collection/a-e-i-o-u-and-sometimes-y/ |archive-date=6 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Ain't I A Woman (Keri) (2009), Museum of Modern Art, New York{{cite web |title=Ain't I A Woman (Keri) |url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/131033? |website=MoMA |publisher=Museum of Modern Art |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210429033803/https://www.moma.org/collection/works/131033 |archive-date=29 April 2021 |url-status=live}}
• I Learned the Hard Way (2010), Montreal Museum of Fine Arts{{cite web |title=I Learned the Hard Way |url=https://www.mbam.qc.ca/en/works/62185/ |website=MBAM |publisher=Montreal Museum of Fine Arts |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221224163217/https://www.mbam.qc.ca/en/works/62185/ |archive-date=24 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• {{Lang|fr|Le déjeuner sur l'herbe: Les Trois Femmes Noires}} (2010), Baltimore Museum of Art{{cite web |title=Le déjeuner sur l'herbe: Les Trois Femme Noires |url=https://collection.artbma.org/objects/74989/le-dejeuner-sur-lherbe-les-trois-femmes-noires? |website=ArtBMA |publisher=Baltimore Museum of Art |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221224162615/https://collection.artbma.org/objects/74989/le-dejeuner-sur-lherbe-les-trois-femmes-noires? |archive-date=24 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Portrait of Mnonja (2010), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.{{cite web |title=Portrait of Mnonja |url=https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/portrait-mnonja-80011 |website=SAAM |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221124030910/https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/portrait-mnonja-80011 |archive-date=24 November 2022 |url-status=live}}
• You're Gonna Give Me the Love I Need (2010), Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio{{cite web |title=You're Gonna Give Me the Love I Need |url=https://allenartcollection.oberlin.edu/objects/36726/youre-gonna-give-me-the-love-i-need? |website=Allen Art Collection |publisher=Oberlin College |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221224162354/https://allenartcollection.oberlin.edu/objects/36726/youre-gonna-give-me-the-love-i-need? |archive-date=24 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Melody: Back (2011), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.{{cite web |title=Melody: Back |url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.221180.html |website=NGA |publisher=National Gallery of Art |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220819151248/https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.221180.html |archive-date=19 August 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Qusuquzah, une très belle négresse 1 (2011), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art{{cite web |title=Qusuquzah, une très belle négresse 1 |url=https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2019.103/ |website=SFMoMA |publisher=San Francisco Museum of Modern Art |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127025712/https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2019.103/ |archive-date=27 November 2021 |url-status=live}}
• Portrait of Marie Sitting in Black and White (2012), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia{{cite web |title=Portrait of Marie Sitting in Black and White |url=https://www.pafa.org/museum/collection/item/portrait-marie-sitting-black-white |website=PAFA |date=5 February 2019 |publisher=Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814133135/https://www.pafa.org/museum/collection/item/portrait-marie-sitting-black-white |archive-date=14 August 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Sleep: Deux Femmes Noires (2013), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston{{cite web |title=Sleep: Deux Femmes Noires |url=https://collections.mfa.org/objects/576335/sleep-deux-femmes-noires? |website=MFA |publisher=Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221224163401/https://collections.mfa.org/objects/576335/sleep-deux-femmes-noires |archive-date=24 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Hair Portrait #20 (2014), Seattle Art Museum{{cite web |title=Hair Portrait #20 |url=https://art.seattleartmuseum.org/objects/41606/hair-portrait-20? |website=SAM |publisher=Seattle Art Museum |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191209214838/https://art.seattleartmuseum.org/objects/41606/hair-portrait-20 |archive-date=9 December 2019 |url-status=live}}
• Racquel: Come to Me (2016), Whitney Museum, New York{{cite web |title=Racquel: Come to Me |url=https://whitney.org/collection/works/60092 |website=Whitney |publisher=Whitney Museum |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211204133327/https://whitney.org/collection/works/60092 |archive-date=4 December 2021 |url-status=live}}
• Resist #2 (2021), Baltimore Museum of Art{{cite web |title=Resist #2 |url=https://collection.artbma.org/objects/101092/resist-2? |website=ArtBMA |publisher=Baltimore Museum of Art |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221218010212/https://collection.artbma.org/objects/101092/resist-2 |archive-date=18 December 2022 |url-status=live}}
• Guernica (Resist #3) (2021), Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas{{cite web |title=Guernica (Resist #3) |url=https://collection.crystalbridges.org/objects/11210/guernica-resist-3? |website=CrystalBridges |publisher=Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221017143149/https://collection.crystalbridges.org/objects/11210/guernica-resist-3 |archive-date=17 October 2022 |url-status=live}}

{{Div col end}}

Thomas is an out lesbian. Her former partner, collaborator, and long-time artistic subject is Racquel Chevremont. With Chevremont, Thomas founded The Josie Club, a support network for queer female artists of color to help support, fundraise and sponsor their work. Thomas and Chevremont separated in 2020 after a decade together.{{cite web |last1=Armstrong |first1=Annie |title=Inside Mickalene Thomas and Racquel Chevremont's Profit-Sharing Arrangement, a Vibe Check on Upstate Art Weekend, and More Art-World Gossip |url=https://news.artnet.com/news-pro/wet-paint-mickalene-thomas-racquel-chevremont-2152760 |website=Artnet News |publisher=Artnet |access-date=24 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221222200720/https://news.artnet.com/news-pro/wet-paint-mickalene-thomas-racquel-chevremont-2152760 |archive-date=22 December 2022 |date=29 July 2022 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• Tinson, Teddy. [http://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/mickalene-thomas-tete-de-femme "Making Up with Mickalene Thomas"], Interview Magazine. June 25, 2014.
• Frank, Priscilla. [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/26/mickalene-thomas_n_5530235.html "Mickalene Thomas Delivers the Most Stylish Philosophy Lesson of All Time"], Huffington Post. June 26, 2014.
• Murray, Derek Conrad. "Mickalene Thomas: Afro-Kitsch and the Queering of Blackness." American Art: Smithsonian American Art Museum. Spring 2014.
• Frank, Priscilla. [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/21/mickalene-thomas_n_4818768.html "Mickalene Thomas Directs Stunning Documentary For Her Mother And Muse"], Huffington Post. February 21, 2014.
• Bissmeyer, Tyler. [https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303933104579304961028023546 "An Art House and Hotel"], The Wall Street Journal. January 10, 2013.
• Bratburd, Rebecca. [https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304858104579262493424844538 "Brooklyn Artists Build Momentum"], The Wall Street Journal. December 17, 2013.
• Sykrett, Asad. [http://www.architecturaldigest.com/blogs/daily/2013/12/art-studio-america-book-tauba-auerbach-mickalene-thomas-blog "Inside the Artist's Studio"], Architectural Digest. December 16, 2013.
• "Série Mode: Mickalene Thomas." L'Officiel Art, Paris. October–November 2013.
• Traff, Thea. [http://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/away-with-the-clich "Away with Clichè"], The New Yorker. July 29, 2013.
• Vogel, Carol. [https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/arts/design/at-art-basel-an-unslaked-appetite-for-buying.html "At Art Basel, an Unslaked Appetite For Buying"], The New York Times. June 14, 2013.
• Cole, Lori. [http://artforum.com/index.php?pn=picks&id=38606&view=print "Critic's Picks"], Artforum. February 2013.
• [https://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2012/11/mickalene-thomas "A whole lotta woman"], The Economist. November 30, 2012.
• Hudson, Suzanne. [http://artforum.com/?pn=cart&id=38295&signin=1 "Mickalene Thomas"], Artforum. November 2012.
• Smith, Roberta. [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/28/arts/design/mickalene-thomas-origin-of-the-universe-at-brooklyn-museum.html "Loud, Proud and Painted"], The New York Times. September 28, 2012.
• [http://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/art/mickalene-thomas-origin-of-the-universe "Mickalene Thomas: Origin of the Universe"], The New Yorker. September 21, 2012.
• Cotter, Holland. [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/10/arts/design/tete-a-tete.html "Tête-à-Tête"], The New York Times. August 19, 2012.
• Wender, Jessie. [http://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/a-tte-tte-with-mickalene-thomas "A Tête-à-Tête with Mickalene Thomas"], The New Yorker. July 16, 2012.
• Finkel, Jori. [https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-xpm-2012-apr-20-la-ca-mickalene-thomas-20120422-story.html "Mickalene Thomas, up close and very personal"], Los Angeles Times. April 22, 2012.
• Frankel, David. "Previews: Mickalene Thomas: The Origin of the Universe." Artforum. January 2012.
• Zimmer, Lori. [http://pmc-mag.com/2011/11/mickalene-thomas/ "Reconstructing the Glittering Female Gaze: A Conversation with Revolutionary Artist Mickalene Thomas"], PMC Magazine. December 2011.
• Rosenberg, Karen. [https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/arts/design/mickalene-thomas-more-than-everything.html "Mickalene Thomas: 'More Than Everything'"], The New York Times. October 21, 2011.
• Landers, Sean. "Mickalene Thomas". BOMB Magazine. Summer 2011.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Mickalene}}

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