#Mikalene Thomas

[burntsoft]

Never Change Lovers in the Middle of the Night (2006), Mickalene Thomas

[briasfreespace]

TYSK: Hey Buddy, you're on the news!!

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Hey y'all, It's Bria again. I know I´ve been on a bit of an hiatus but I am back and hoping to build an audience and repertoire of essays and journalistic insights. I am an artist and in a state of growth and transformation. I've given myself time and am ready to grow again. So, this is my new segment THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW. I found difficulty in understanding my place in the world after the onslaught of attention brought to the Palestinian, Congolese, and Sundanese struggles. I wasn't sure what to do, but I found sharing information is always the most important thing you can do.

🗞🗞🗞🗞🗞🗞🗞🗞things you should know🗞🗞🗞🗞🗞🗞🗞🗞

Insight: I find as the new Black and brown adults we have to find non-neo-fascist ways to teach our children discipline and composure. We have to teach them to want to learn and to want to be supported. We have to help them overstand, that you are not being subdued but elevated. How do we do this when we are suffering ourselves? Many of us are left struggling to differentiate between the auto policing of ourselves enforced by a childhood of strict ethnoreligious parents and white teachers/peers who misunderstood us. How do we liberate the children and our children from the same fate? How do we liberate ourselves? 

2. News and Literature sources:

PLEASE, run don't walk -or scroll vigorously- to Haymarket books and pick up a copy of Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire. You can pick-up a free ebook copy or support these writers in their struggle and buy a physical copy.

I have fallen in love with the writer Candice Marie Benbow. She is a Christian theologian who wrote the book Red Lip Theology: For Church Girls Who've Considered Tithing to the Beauty Supply Store when Sunday Morning isn't Enough. This book is probably not for me, but I think it'd be a benefit for Black women experiencing the Black church and honoring their space in it. I have followed her on Twitter for a while, but I recently started watching her interviews and felt the need to share.

YOU SHOULD KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON IN PALESTINE. This is a genocide. Many news sources aren't picking it up and telling the true story of the suffering of the Palestinian people. the US is funding genocide and Israel is carrying it out. I will share more sources but @Wizard_Bisan1 and @Amotaz_azaiza are two young journalists on the ground sharing their experiences and bringing light to the truth. Please follow them and continue to uplift and share their stories. They are targeting journalists as over 90 have died during the over 2 months of violent attacks.

3. Art I´ve fallen in love with:

Back in October, I dated this wonderful person who put me on to so much Black Art History. It was nice to finally date a person with interest. Two names they gave were Kerry James Marshall and Mikelene Thomas. I found their names continue to come up for me. Here are two pieces that brought me an inner guidance of sorts.

Amongst visual art pieces, I found a new love for ¨Pyramids¨ by Frank Ocean. I saw someone on TikTok try to explain it, and while they piqued my interest, I found their analysis to be lacking... in sense, and that's okay. We gotta blame Bush for that one. So, whichever you do, bust a move or throw a shoe, let us have a toast to an oldie but a goodie.

I found this poem on Warsaw Shire's Instagram -she has recently been shadow-banned- and I thought it was important to share this piece by Najwan Darwish.

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4. Personal life update edition:

I recently moved out to LA. I've been fighting for my life trying to survive financially, but your girl just got 1.5 jobs. So, I soon will be doing great. If any of yall are from LA or know folks out here. Let's meet up or lmk where I can hang out. I stayed in the house. I tried to go to Beverly Hills last week. It was a 1.5-hour bus ride. Needless to say, I'm green as hell.

Thank yall so much for reading.

[imthefailedartist]

Being Human exhibit at the Flint Institute of Arts, pieces are from the Rubell Museum in Florida.

Clockwise: Jean-Michel Basquiat, He Xiangyu, Mikalene Thomas,

[drawinglife2020]

Mikalene Thomas

[teonnaelliottart]

Mickalene Thomas

https://www.mickalenethomas.com/

‘to see yourself and to have others see you is a form of validation’

‘glamerous, assured, sexy subjects’ 

‘women like her (mother)’

‘black femininity’

‘claiming a space that seemed to be voided’ 

‘all these paintings we hold up as imortant images..... beauty......contrivsial.....why arn’t these images of black women?’ 

the above quotes are taken from the artists about section of her website, rather than written words, the website plays videos of the artist and her art works overlayed with her talking about her own practise and inspirations. these quotes in particular stood out to me. 

Mikalene Thomas is an American artist best known for her depictions of African American women – usually iconic historical figures, celebrities and often her mother - using a variety of media, ranging from acrylic paint to photography to rhinestones. Through the use of appropriated imagery, this artist tackles issues of race , femininity, and beauty alongside personal histories, mainly taking influence from her 1970’s childhood. She also notably painted the first individual portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama, which was subsequently displayed at the National Portrait Gallery. Born on January 28, 1971 in Camden, NJ, she went on to attend the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and later received her MFA at the Yale School of Art in 2002. Thomas’ work can be found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C., and the Baltimore Museum of Art, among others. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

this photograph that she has taken stood out to me in particular. at first look, it can be quite overwhelming due to the amount of stuff going on in the image. i love the over use of floral patterns and clashing colours that some how work well together - this reminded me of traditional african garments that are highly patterened and brightly coloured. the 3 female subjects vary in skin tone colour and all look directly out of the photograph exuding confidence. i love the way the artist has embraced natural afro hair, exaggerating the legnth and size to make it a key feature of the piece. 

Le déjeuner sur l’herbe: Le Trois Femme Noires (2010) is a photograph by Thomas inpired by Manets famous painting Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (1862) originally titled Le Bain (The Bath) . The original, scandalous painting depicts a nude women and 2 formally clothed men lounging in a public setting. Thomas’s recreation substitutes these characters for provocatively dressed black women in the same composition on a 10 by 24-foot scale. “These women are so grounded and perfectly comfortable in their own space,” says Catharina Manchanda, a curator at the Seattle art museum. “While we might be looking at them, they are also sizing us up.” (Ates, 2018). In doing this, she reforms a relationship between art history and black women -a subject it once abandoned. She takes the idea of a nude women reclining in an exotic setting and restages in terms that empower her subjects rather than objectifying them.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mgmmyv/mickalene-thomas-interview

You're very playful with the dialogue between African and Western traditions in the history of painting. What's your relationship to that history? Are you viewing it as a tool, or something that needs to be redressed? I draw a lot of inspiration from the canonized images in the history of art, and part of that drive comes from a desire to claim these celebrated images of beauty and reinterpret them in my own way. I'm inserting the figures of black women, who have largely been forgotten or marginalized throughout the history of Western art. I am creating the context I want my work to be viewed within; rather than my work being considered as a commentary or even a departure, I actually want to take some ownership of or participate in the conversation when we talk about Matisse, Manet, Romare Bearden, Balthus, Courbet, or even Warhol and Duchamp.

As a black female artist with black female subjects, your work is often framed by identity politics. What's your relationship to these discourses? The fact that I am a woman artist inherently shifts the classic discussion of the male gaze. As a woman, I find myself identifying with my models, and I'm not at all interested in reducing them solely to the objects of my work. While the women in my work celebrate different notions of beauty, I think simultaneously they are providing a confrontational barrier that challenges the clichés traditionally laid on women of color. Through their assertive gazes, they are demanding to be seen, to be heard, and to be acknowledged.

That's a good place to talk about how you approach beauty. Your work indulges in beauty as something sensual and positive, and also addresses it as a set of cultural ideals that can be damaging to subjects who don't identify with them.

When I consider notions of beauty, I think of Lacan's theories in relation to validation. The notions that he puts forth are interesting to me—he speaks of the representation of the mirror and how we see ourselves. But we don't see ourselves or know our own beauty until it's validated by how others see us. The mirror as an object is powerful because it's the only time we see our own reflection. But the validation from others gives us true meaning.

[artsistory]

We saw the White House! (pt 2)

After we made it into the museum we saw natural history stuff... you know the kind....like... human evolution stuff!

And dead animal stuff!

And this recently extinct species of rhino that was “collected” by Teddy Roosevelt:

You know...the usual stuff! We saw some bugs, and old clothes, and mummies, and the skeleton of the guy that donated a bunch of other skeletons to the museum before having his own skeleton donated, and rocks! Even something called the hope diamond which is a very expensive rock! It’s worth a lot because it was in Titanic probably. And is cursed or whatever.

I gotta say.... the natural history museum in New York has way more dinosaurs. 

After getting our fill of different types of wood, and old bones, and stuff we decided to make our way to the memorials. Now this is quite the walk and at this point the sun was OUT and the shade was NONE and the white marble was EVERYWHERE blasting its horrible reflective heat all over the place. We had watched with envy as many hip tweens scooted by us on electric scooters. Apparently you can rent these and pick them off/ drop them off wherever. The problem is, at the National Mall, these scooters are a pretty competitive mode of transportation. And either you can’t get your hands on one at all or it’s totally out of charge. So we did the next best this, rent bikes!

The second we tried to sit on the bikes we remembered something important about ourselves that we had forgotten... Neither of us really know how to ride bikes. Like, at all. So we swerved anxiously through the crowds. Dodging tweens is very difficult as tweens don’t care about nothing or no one! They are invincible and expansive! We were so frazzled by the whole experience that we completely missed the actual white house... oh well! We saw a lot of other white things! So....many....whites. We managed to return the bikes without running any one over and took some time to see the Maya Lin Vietnam memorial. We were thinking of doing an episode on it but the only hot goss there is that people are racist. Bummmmerrrr. After that we went to see ole Abe. Gosh was he big.

Sunburned and worn out we decided to take a quick break before our next plans. We sat for an hour and then headed right back out! To the National Portrait Gallery! The portrait gallery is where they have all the presidential portraits. I’m not a huge fan of presidents...or Kehinde Wiley (who did Obama’s) but I am a huge fan of one painting I knew would be there. Alice Neel’s self portrait! I love her old nakedness, silly foot, and pink cheeks.

Actually this museum was a lot of fun. I was feeling burnt out on the classic art museum curation. Almost every one has a similar lay out and collection. But this gallery has a specific focus that I was into. I love portraits! I love figurative art! I love any museum that has Mikalene Thomas on view.

We stayed until close. This gallery was in chinatown and so we decided to have dinner in the area. This was a truly disappointing chinatown. The only thing chinese about it were the chinese characters under the chipotle sign. Very underwhelming. And so we went for a cheeky nandos with the lads instead of trying to find some authentic chinese food.

The cheeky nandos was very tasty and I’m excited to get to the UK where we will most certainly be having more. 

[degen-studio]

Just got this issue of Scholastic Art magazine featuring Gustav Klimt. They included my work and work from Mikalene Thomas and Fred Tomaselli to show examples of contemporary artists who use pattern. Big up to the editors! Cool to see an art magazine like this for junior-high and high school students that features the work of canonical greats along with living artists. The writing in here is better than most “grown-up” mags! #gustavklimt #mikalenethomas #fredtomaselli #iseeapatternhere #keepingitcontemporary #notjustforkids #arteducationmatters https://www.instagram.com/p/BqIX2GoF2Fq/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=8xdkz63omt6w

[thelearninglife]

(via A Wartime Education)

Mikalene Thomas, This Girl Could Be Dangerous

[skowhegan]

Diana Al-Hadid (’07), Polly Apfelbaum (F ‘99), Colleen Asper (’06), Beth Campbell (’97), Patty Chang (F ‘03), Nicole Cherubini (’02), Donna Dennis (F ‘82), Leah Dixon (’12), Jenny Dubnau (’95), Sharona Eliassaf (’11), Rochelle Feinstein (F ‘99, ‘12), Ashlee Ferlito (’12), Dana Frankfort (’97), Chitra Ganesh (’01, ‘13), Kate Gilmore (F ’12), Joanne Greenbaum (F ’03), Karen Heagle (’97), Jane Fox Hipple (’09), Deborah Kass (F ‘97), Chelsea Knight (’08), Autumn Knight (’16), Julia Kunin (’84), Marcia Kure (’12), Marie Lorenz (’04, F ‘13), Natasha Mayers (’76), Suzanne McClelland (F ‘99), Ander Mikalson (’12), Carrie Moyer (’95, F ‘10), Alix Pearlstein (F ‘04), Sheila Pepe (’94, F ‘13), Kenya (Robinson) (’14), Naomi Safran-Hon (’12), Carrie Schneider (’07), Mira Schor (F ‘95), Becky Sellinger (’12), Slinko (’10), Barb Smith (’12), Alexandria Smith (’15), Shinique Smith (’03), Allyson Stragella (’95), Julianne Swartz (’99, F ‘08), Monika Sziladi (’08), Mikalene Thomas (F ‘13), Lachell Workman (’15) and many more Post-Election September 449 Warren Street #3, Hudson, New York 12534 January 28��March 5, 2017

[bkmdigitalartizens]

FEMINIST LENS: Is the subject of the artwork being objectified? Is the subject of the artwork being sexualized?

Mickalene Thomas (American, born 1971). A Little Taste Outside of Love, 2007. Acrylic, enamel and rhinestones on wood panel, Overall: 108 x 144 in. (274.3 x 365.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Giulia Borghese and Designated Purchase Fund, 2008.7a-c. © Mickalene Thomas 

"I like this artwork because unlike most female nudes, this one features a woman of color. It is clear that she embraces her sexuality and I think that the materials used are quite interesting." - Natalie

[ihatebodys]

Portrait of Qusuquzah, 1971 by Mikalene Thomas

[postspecificpost]

Mickalene Thomas, Origin of the Universe, Brooklyn Museum

Image credit: Detail of “Le Dejeuner Sur L’Herbe: Les Trois Femme Noires,” 2010 (rhinestones, acrylic and enamel on wood panel), which was inspired by Manet.

I went for Materializing "Six Years": Lucy R. Lippard and the Emergence of Conceptual Art, but I stayed for Mikalene Thomas' Origin of the Universe. 

That reveals a lot.

From construction to desire. The construction of desire. The responsibility of looking came up in the panel discussion, but is the responsibility led by the viewer or the artist?

Sequins and sparkle do not translate well in documentation. How could they? They demand moving image documentation, a lapse of time for light to shimmer.

The film was the highlight and the interview made it. The film about her muse, her mother. Their frankness gave depth to the portraits, but not vice versa. Art history gave depth to the portraits, but only as a one-liner.

Thomas takes on Courbet's L’Origine du monde in black and white, from world to universe, and that is a lingering question. If Lacan could choose, I wonder which one he would hide?

[teonnaelliottart]

Mikalene Thomas and Manet

https://lydiaswaart.weebly.com/art-3/mickalene-thomas-and-edouard-manet-compare-and-contrast-paper

Mikalene Thomas is an American artist best known for her depictions of African American women – usually iconic historical figures, celebrities and often her mother - using a variety of media, ranging from acrylic paint to photography to rhinestones. Through the use of appropriated imagery, this artist tackles issues of race , femininity, and beauty alongside personal histories, mainly taking influence from her 1970’s childhood. Le déjeuner sur l’herbe: Le Trois Femme Noires (2010) (see image 8) is a photograph by Thomas inpired by Manets famous painting Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (1862) originally titled Le Bain (The Bath) . The original, scandalous painting depicts a nude women and 2 formally clothed men lounging in a public setting. Thomas’s recreation substitutes these characters for provocatively dressed black women in the same composition on a 10 by 24-foot scale. “These women are so grounded and perfectly comfortable in their own space,” says Catharina Manchanda, a curator at the Seattle art museum. “While we might be looking at them, they are also sizing us up.” (Ates, 2018). In doing this, she reforms a relationship between art history and black women -a subject it once abandoned. She takes the idea of a nude women reclining in an exotic setting and restages in terms that empower her subjects rather than objectifying them.

[artsobserver]

The Brooklyn-based artist faced a personal tragedy and found beauty.