Art Breaks | Mickalene Thomas

(b. 1971, Camden, NJ)

Mickalene Thomas’ work challenges traditional notions of sexuality and femininity and explores the complexity of what it means to be a woman. Thomas works in a variety of media, including sculpture, painting, and video. Her study of art history, including classical forms of landscape and portraiture, informs her work for Art Breaks, titled Revay. Thomas earned her MFA from Yale University, and holds a BFA from Pratt Institute. In 2002-2003 she participated in the Artist-in-Residence program at the Studio Museum in Harlem and in 2011 she was a resident at the Versailles Foundation Munn Artists Program in Giverny, France. She has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally at such institutions as the La Conservera Contemporary Art Centre in Ceutí, Spain; the Hare Museum in Tokyo, Japan; and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. Forthcoming solo exhibitions in 2012 include “Origin of the Universe,” at the Santa Monica Museum of Art and at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Thomas is represented by Lehmann Maupin in New York, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, and Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago.

Mickalene Thomas lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.