Known for her monumental, rhinestone-encrusted paintings of domestic interiors and female subjects, Thomas identifies photography as playing a central role within her practice. She first began to photograph herself and her mother during her time as an MFA student at Yale and has since moved to photographing friends and lovers. Drawing from diverse sources, including the nudes of Edouard Manet and the s black-is-beautiful movement, Thomas expands the representation of black women within the canon of art history.
The artist emphasizes the collaborative nature of her creative process, through which the unique beauty and individuality of each model is manifested. She further explores the notion of desire, memory, sexuality, and transformation through images of familiar, yet anonymous women, positioned and posed as alluring beauties. Throughout her career, Thomas has combined abstraction and figuration, and pushed the conventions of painting, photography, collage, and printmaking beyond their traditional limits, often incorporating unconventional materials in her work.
In her recent series of photocollages, printed directly on metal using the dye sublimation process, individual elements of each work are cut out and layered one on top of another creating a dimensional surface. On top of the printed imagery, Thomas has added gestural drawings highlighted by her characteristic glittering multi-colored rhinestones.
The result is a dynamic three-dimensional construction that undercuts any narrative reading and draws attention to the fluidity of identity, collectiveness of culture, and malleability of history in modern society. Thomas has been awarded multiple prizes and grants. Co-organized with Hayward Gallery, London and in partnership with the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, this marks Thomas's first major international touring exhibition.
Boccuzzi, Jr, have endowed a scholarship at the Yale School of Art to provide tuition assistance for an exceptional incoming MFA student each year. As part of the Mickalene Thomas Scholarship, the artist has committed to personally mentoring the recipients throughout their time in the two-year programme. It was part of an ongoing effort by Chiuri to bring on established women artists as runway collaborators.
