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Mickalene Thomas Art

American, b. 1971

Although she’s best known for her vibrant and textural collage portraits of Black women, contemporary artist Mickalene Thomas is in fact a master of many mediums, including photography, video, sculpture and printmaking. Born in Camden, New Jersey, and raised by her mother, a fashion model, Thomas enrolled in after-school art classes at the Newark Museum of Art in Newark, New Jersey, and the Henry Street Settlement in New York City as a child. Later, she would earn fine art degrees from Pratt Institute and Yale University.

Inspired in part by her strong, matriarchal upbringing and her own identity as a queer Black woman, Thomas focuses on female power, beauty and sexuality in her works. She cites a 1990s-era exhibition of Carrie Mae Weems’s work at the Portland Art Museum in Oregon as being critically important to her becoming an artist. In her work, Thomas commonly pulls from the art history canon, riffing frequently on the styles and compositions of early modernists such as Gustave Courbet, Édouard Manet and Henri Matisse, as well as more contemporary artists like Romare Bearden and David Hockney. She recontextualizes their paintings by restaging them with Black subjects, using signature materials like rhinestones, enamel and acrylic paint to profound effect. Relatedly, for a collaboration with Dior, Thomas reinvented the house’s iconic Bar jacket and Lady Dior handbag to become, essentially, wearable Claude Monet landscapes.

Thomas also investigates the idea of Black celebrity in her work, painting portraits of such Black icons as Whitney Houston, Oprah Winfrey and Eartha Kitt. In 2008, Thomas painted the first individual silkscreen portrait of then–First Lady Michelle Obama, which was exhibited for the first time in the National Portrait Gallery’s “Americans Now” show.

Thomas’s work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Brooklyn Museum of Art, among others. She has received such accolades as the Timerhi Award for Leadership in the Arts in 2010, the Brooklyn Museum Asher B. Durand Award in 2012 and the Anonymous Was a Woman Award in 2013. In 2015, Thomas was named a USA Francie Bishop Good & David Horvitz Fellow.

Find Mickalene Thomas’s art on 1stDibs today.

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Artist: Mickalene Thomas
"Untitled" (Black is Beautiful) USA, 2017 Inkjet print
By Mickalene Thomas
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Mickalene Thomas (b.1971) is an American artist exploring the intersection of popular culture and art history, through a contemporary Black female gaze. As an openly gay Black woman, sexuality and race are essential themes in Thomas' practice. Thomas frequently creates portraits of black women. Her subjects, or muses, emanate an air of confidence or nonchalance and are often surrounded by abstract or patterned elements from an array of sources and eras. Elements of Blaxploitation, Pop Art, Cubism, Dadaism, and even Renaissance art appear in her work. Thomas subverts both art history and contemporary visual culture through her images of Black women. Their hair often remains natural, and their bodies are often exposed. They lounge, or pose, as women in art...
Category

2010s Contemporary Mickalene Thomas Art

Materials

Inkjet

Keri On
By Mickalene Thomas
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Mickalene Thomas (b.1971) is an American artist exploring the intersection of popular culture and art history, through a contemporary Black female gaze. As an openly gay Black woman, sexuality and race are essential themes in Thomas' practice. Thomas frequently creates portraits of black women...
Category

2010s Contemporary Mickalene Thomas Art

Materials

Silk, Monoprint

Portrait de Priscilla Le Petit Chien
By Mickalene Thomas
Located in New York, NY
Mickalene Thomas Portrait de Priscilla Le Petit Chien, 2012 Pigment print on 100% cotton rag paper Edition 148/150 Frame included with official COA affixed to the back Hand numbered ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Mickalene Thomas Art

Materials

Digital Pigment

Portrait of a Lovely Six Foota #1
By Mickalene Thomas
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Mickalene Thomas (b.1971) is an American artist exploring the intersection of popular culture and art history, through a contemporary Black female gaze. As an openly gay Black woman, sexuality and race are essential themes in Thomas' practice. "Portrait of a Lovely...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Mickalene Thomas Art

Materials

Giclée

When Ends Meet
By Mickalene Thomas
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Mickalene Thomas (b.1971) is an American artist exploring the intersection of popular culture and art history, through a contemporary Black female gaze. As an openly gay Black woman, sexuality and race are essential themes in Thomas' practice. Thomas frequently creates elaborate and intricate portraits of black women...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Mickalene Thomas Art

Materials

Mixed Media, Screen

Hot! Wild! Unrestricted!
By Mickalene Thomas
Located in New York, NY
C-Print 24 x 30 inches
Category

Early 2000s Mickalene Thomas Art

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Previously Available Items
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Mickalene Thomas (b.1971) is a renowned artist exploring the intersection of popular culture and art history, through a contemporary Black female gaze. She studied at the Pratt Institute, and earned her MFA from Yale. As an openly gay Black woman, sexuality and race are essential elements of Thomas' practice. Thomas primary focus is portraits of black women. Her works are instantly recognizable featuring bold textures, patterns and colors. Thomas' subjects radiate beauty and confidence, further enhanced by the abundance of colorful textures and patterns surrounding them. Their hair is typically natural, and their bodies are often exposed or informal. They lounge, or pose, as women in art history have done for centuries. Only this time, it's Black women being celebrated for their culture and beauty. Visual references to Blaxploitation, Pop Art, Cubism, Dadaism, and even Renaissance art appear in her work. Her subjects, or muses, emanate an air of ease in their skin. Their gaze is usually directed towards the viewer, challenging the white male gaze and defying racial stereotypes of subservience and objectification. This colorful and multi-faceted work "Why Can't We Just Sit Down and Talk It Over?" is a stunning example of Thomas' practice. Created in her signature mixed-media collage style, this screenprint features a poised and beautiful Black woman...
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Interior: Blue Couch and Green Owl
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2010s Mickalene Thomas Art

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Mickalene Thomas art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Mickalene Thomas art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Mickalene Thomas in digital print, inkjet print, digital pigment print and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 21st century and contemporary and is mostly associated with the contemporary style. Not every interior allows for large Mickalene Thomas art, so small editions measuring 11 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Dan Mehlman, Chuck Sperry, and James Brown. Mickalene Thomas art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at £2,419 and tops out at £26,406, while the average work can sell for £7,257.

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