Thomas, Mickalene
MICKALENE THOMAS
Born: Camden, NJ, 1971
Lives: Brooklyn, NY
Education
2002 MFA in Painting, Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT.
2000 BFA in Painting, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY.
1998 Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia
Residencies
2011 The Versailles Munn Artists Program at Giverny, France
2003 Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY.
2001 Vermont Studios Center, Johnson, VT.
1999 Yale Norfolk Summer of Music and Art, Norfolk, CT.
Solo Exhibitions
2012
Origins of the Universe, Santa Monica Museum, Santa Monica, CA.
How to Unify A Room Around a Striking piece of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY.
2011
More Than Everything, Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, NY.
Mama Bush: One of a Kind Two, The Hara Museum, Tokyo, Japan.
2010
Put A Little Sugar In My Bowl, Susanne Vielmetter Projects, Los Angeles, CA.
2009
Something You Can Feel, La Conservera Contemporary Art Space, Ceuti, Spain
She’s Come UnDone!, Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, NY.
Mickalene Thomas, Alumni Achievement Award Exhibition, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY.
2008
Girlfriends, Lovers, Still Lifes and Landscape, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL.
What’s Love Got To Do With It?, Bloom Projects, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, CA.
2007
An Imitation of Love, Brawlin’ Spitfire Two, Susanne Vielmetter Projects, Los Angeles, CA. (Project Room)
2006
Something About You..., Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL.
Brawlin’ Spitfire, Special Project, Dust Gallery, Las Vegas, NV.
Special Projects
2010
Le Déjeuner Sur l’Herbe: Les Trois Femmes Noires, The Modern Window at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY.
Le Déjeuner Sur l’Herbe: Les Trois Femmes Noires, On-Site, P.S.1 MoMA, Long Island City, NY.
Group Exhibitions
2012
Global Africa Project, Reginald Lewis Museum, Baltimore, MD; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA.
Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present, Everhart Museum, Scranton, PA.
Blacks in Black and White, Brand New Gallery, Milan, Italy.
2011
Beyond Bling: Voices of Hip-Hop in Art, Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota.
MelodyMania, RH Gallery, New York, NY.
Eat Me, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
A Room of Her Own, Lu Magnus Gallery, New York, NY.
Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present, Newark Museum, Newark, NJ, USC Fisher Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA.
Contemporary Magic: A Tarot Deck Art Project, Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA.
Building the Contemporary Collection: Five Years of Acquisitions, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC.
The Way We Are Now: Selections from the 21st c. Collection, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH.
Safety in Numbers? Images of African American Identity and Community, Portland
Art Museum, Portland, ME.
Be Alive: Selections from the Hara Museum Collection, Hara Museum, Tokyo, Japan
30 Americans, Corcoran Gallery, DC and the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC.
Seeing Now: Photography Since 1960, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD.
The Truth is Not in the Mirror, Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI; University Galleries at Illinois State University, Normal, IL.
Surface Value, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA.
Elizabeth Catlett: Call and Response, Bronx Museum of Art, New York, NY.
Pattern ID, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO.
2010
XX-XY/Gender Representation in Art, Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL
Now WHAT?, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL.
Sharon Stone in Abuja, Location One, New York, NY.
4 Eccentrics, The Proposition, New York, NY.
Summer Surprises, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, PA.
Inspired, Steven Kasher Gallery, New York, NY.
The Global Africa Project, The Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY.
Americans Now, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Pattern ID, Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH.
Versus, Hous Projects, New York, NY.
Collected: Reflections on the Permanent Collection, The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY.
Shrew’d: The Smart & Sassy Survey of American Women Artists, Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE.
Posing Beauty, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA.
Searching for the Heart of Black Identity: Art and the Contemporary African American
Experience, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, KY.
40, Texas Gallery, Houston, TX
2009
Landscape Revisited, Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY.
Extended Family: Contemporary Connections, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY.
Posing Beauty, New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, New York, NY.
The Female Gaze: Women Looking At Women, Cheim and Read, New York, NY.
Dress Codes: The Third ICP Triennial of Photography and Video, The International Center of Photography, New York, NY.
Creating Identity: Portraits Today, 21 C Museum, Louisville, KY.
Big Apple, Galerie Nordine Zidoun, Paris, France
Undercover: Performing and Transforming Black Female Identities, The Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, GA.
The Glamour Project, Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, NY.
2008
30 Americans, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL.
Group Show, Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Stockholm, Sweden
21: Selections of Contemporary Art from the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY.
As Others See Us: The Contemporary Portrait, Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, Brattleboro, VT.
The Other Mainstream II: Selections from the Collection of Mikki and Stanley
Weithorn, Arizona State University Museum of Art, Tempe, AZ.
Becoming: Photographs from the Wedge Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art,
Detroit, MI.
Black Is, Black Ain’t, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, IL.
City Stage, New Orleans Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans, LA.
Perverted by Theater, apexart, New York, NY.
2007
Sweet SweetBack’s Baadasssss Song, Von Lintel Gallery, New York, NY.
Commemorating 30 Years 1976–2007 Part Three 1991–2007, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL.
Distinctive Messenger, House of Campari, New York, NY.
Sex in the City, Dumbo Arts Center, Brooklyn, NY.
Taking Aim, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN.
Some Kind of Portrait, Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA.
Flava, Wedge Curatorial Projects, Toronto, Canada
Prime Time, Caren Golden Fine Art Gallery, New York, NY.
My Love Is a 187, Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
Inspired in New York, Echo Gallery, New York, NY.
2006
Not An Ocean Between Us: Voices of Women From African and the African Diaspora, Winston Salem State University. Winston Salem, NC.
Lag Time Line Up, Mumbo Jumbo Gallery, New York, NY.
Materiality, Kravets/Wehby Gallery, New York, NY.
Wild Girls, Exit Art, New York, NY.
The Pulse of New Brooklyn, MoCADA Museum, Brooklyn, NY.
Do You Think I’m Disco, Longwood Art Gallery, Bronx, NY.
2005
NeoVernacular, Steve Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.
Five Artists, Five Projects, Wertz Contemporary, Atlanta, GA.
Frequency, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY.
Tête-à-Tête, Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York, NY.
Maximum Flavor, Atlanta College of Art Gallery, Atlanta, GA.
Greater New York 2005, P.S.1/MoMA, Long Island City, NY.
African Queen, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY.
2004
Me, Myself and I, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL.
Glamour, Glory and Gold, The Proposition Gallery, New York, NY.
Seeds and Roots, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY.
It’s About Memory, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL.
2003
Beauty, Kravets/Wehby Gallery, New York, NY.
Pantone, Massimo Audiello Gallery, New York, NY.
Because I’m Worth It, Chelsea Art Museum, New York, NY.
Hands on Hands Down, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY.
Performances
2009
Oh Mickey!, Kreemart and the American Patrons of Tate, Haunch of Venison, New York, NY.
Professor of Music and DJ Dean of Admissions, MoMixx at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY.
Curatorial
2009
“The Brand New Heavies” Collette Blanchard Gallery, New York, NY.
Selected Bibliography
2011
Rosen, Steven. “The Here and Now: Cincinnati Art Museum welcomes 21c to Cincinnati.”, CityBeat.com, 8 February
Wakeling, Emily. “Art Amongst the Living: Surveying contemporary Japanese art via the Hara Museum collection.”, Tokyo Art Beat, 7 February.
Levin, Ann. “Elizabeth Catlett’s heroic images on view.”, Yahoo News, 28 January
Budick, Ariella. “The Global Africa Project, Museum of Arts and Design, New York.”, FinancialTimes.com, 20 January
2010
“A Conversation with Mickalene Thomas”, Sketchdout.com, 16, August
Ayers, Robert. “A Conversation with Mickalene Thomas”,
askyfilledwithshootingstars.com/wordpress, 29, July.
Blasberg, Derek. “Happy Birthday, Naoimi!” V Magazine Issue 65 Summer: pp. 38-38.
Casagrande, Reggie. “Feature: Mickalene Thomas: A Complex Vision,” Lipsticktracez online
“Collected. Reflections on the Permanent Collection,” Studio. Winter.
“In The Flesh,” V Magazine, Issue 63, Spring.
Gaines, Carl. “The Cleopatra Jones of the Brooklyn Art Scene,” Brooklyn Based online, 8 April.
Laster, Paul. “A Window on Art,” The New York Observer, 21 April.
Thompson, Haven. “Creative Chic,” W Magazine, April.
“Versus,” Faction Magazine online, Issue 11, January.
2009
Kazanjian, Dodie. “Dreaming the Landscape,” Vogue, November.
Bedolla, Myrtis. “Rubell Show, A Stand Out,” The International Review of African American Art Vol.22, No 3.
Cutler, Jody B. “A Lineage is Not a Category,” The International Review of African American Art Vol.22, No.4.
Jackson, Brian Keith. “American vision,” GIANT, December – January.
Oates, Leah. “BeDazzled,” NY ARTS Vol.14.
“Portfolio: Mickalene Thomas,” Fantom: Photographic Quarterly, Autumn.
Smith, Roberta. “Beyond a Simple Fashion Statement,” The New York Times, 9 October.
“Art Basel 2009,” Artinfo.com, 23 June.
Estrella, Sarah. “The Female Gaze: ‘Women Look at Women’ at Cheim & Read Gallery, “NYC.” Examainer.com, 19 June.
Santos, Nelson. “CerealArt Print Portfolio to benefit YouthAIDS, Shanti Uganda and Building Tomorrow.” Newsgrist.typepad.com, 16 June.
Adam, Georgina. “The art market: Buoyant Basel contrasts with Russian reluctance,” Financial Times, 13 June.
“When Not in Venice.” Artinfo.com, 5 June.
“House of Campari Offers First Look At LA’s Rising Artists.” GuestofaGuest.com, 1 June.
Batet, Janet. “30 Americans at the Rubell Family Collection next to close!” examiner.com, 21 May.
Lamm, Kimberly. “Mikalene Thomas, She’s Come Undone!” The Brooklyn Rail, May.
“Creative Time Benefit 2009.” Whitewall.com, 11 May.
Smith, Roberta. Art in Review, The New York Times, May 1
Crisell, Luke. “Body and Soul,” Nylon, April.
Kerr, Merrily. “Mickalene Thomas, She’s Come UnDone!”, Time Out New York, April 23- 29
Visiting Artist Talk: Mickalene Thomas, NYU Steinhardt, 23 April.
Rosenberg, Karen. “Video Artist as Video Art : Glimpses of an Alter-Ego Trip.” New York Times (online), 16 April.
WWD staff. Interpreting Chanel No.5…” WWDFashion.com, 5 April.
“Chanel’s Art Picks : Chanel to Sponser the Tribeca Film Festival’s 2009 Artist Awards Program.” Fashion Week Daily (online) 14 April.
Jahn, Jeff. “Mickalene Thomas at Lehmann Maupin’s Glamour Project,” portlandart.net, 13 April
“Mickalene Thomas at Lehmann Maupin.” Slamxhype.com, 9 April.
Kino, Carol. “A Confidence Highlighted in Rhinestones”, The New York Times, 7 April
“Interview With Okwui Enwezor, part 2.” Blog.thisisbase.com, 3 April.
Alexander, Lily. “Mickalene Thomas at Lehmann Maupin: She’s Come Undone!” Whitewall.com, 2 April.
“Tales from Two Cities.” Ionarts.blogspot.com, 2 April.
Wright, Jeffery Cyphers. “Illusion, mystique and plain beauty in sparkling paintings.” The Villager, 1 April - 7 April.
Favaro, Massimo. “Chelsea : Art is the Market Place,” Us.nycve.it, 1 April.
“Mickalene Thomas at Lehmann Maupin, NYC (March 2009),”
Marceartvlog.blogspot.com, 29 March.
Halle, Howard. “Medium Cool: Best in painting, Mickalene Thomas,” Time Out New York, 26 March - 1 April.
Dailey, Meghan. “In the Studio: Mickalene Thomas,” Art + Auction, March.
Shaw, Cameron. “Mickalene Thomas,” ArtForum online, March.
Finch, Charlie. “Another Country.” Artnet, 30 March.
Current Viewing: Mickalene Thomas: Lehmann Maupin, The Imagist.com, 27 March.
Bodin, Claudia. “Radar: Mickalene Thomas,” Art das kunstmagazin, 23 March.
“NYC Armory Show: Sour Times, Bright Colors,” Fader, 13 March.
“Glamour Asks to Top Female Artists to Define Glamour,” Mediabistro.com, 10 March.
Cotter, Holland. “On the Piers, Testing the Waters in a Down Art Market”, The New York Times, 6 March.
Walker, Kara. “Mickalene Thomas,” Bomb, March.
Dailey, Meghan, “In the Studio,” Art + Auction, March.
Robinett, Rae Anne. “Mickalene Thomas”, Beautiful Decay, Issue Z.
Grabner, Michelle, “Mickalene Thomas,” Artforum, February.
2008
Jackson, Brian Keith. “American Vision”, GIANT, December- January.
Breukel, Claire. 30 Americans, Wynwood, December.
Watson, Simon, “Mickalene Thomas: Lush Life,” Whitewall, no. 8,Winter.
Weinberg, Lauren. “Jet Set”, Time Out Chicago, 20 – 26 November.
Copeland, Huey, “The Blackness of Blackness,” Artforum, October.
Douglas, Sarah, "A Soft Landing at Frieze?" ARTINFO, 15 October.
Pratt, Ken. “Material Stealth”, Wound, Fall, issue 4
Artner, Alan G. “Black Is, Black Aint Goes Deep,” Chicago Tribune 29 May.
Evans, Ali. “A Portrait of an Artist by an Artist”, Studio, The Studio Museum of Harlem, Spring.
Psyllos, Steven. “USA Today: A Visual Mixtape”, TRACE, issue 81
2007
Allan, Stacy, “Reviews”, Modern Painters, December.
Douglas, Sarah, “Intimately Scaled, Pulse Looks Promising”, Artinfo, 11 October.
Art Market Insight, American Art Collector, “You’ll have to stand in line for the work of these hot young Yale artist” January.
Cotter, Holland, “Prime Time: Mickalene Thomas and Shinique Smith,” New York Times, 4 May.
Hunt, Kenya, “Rhinestones and Oprah.” Metro, 30 March.
Miller, Rebecca, Shotgun Review, “My Love is a 187”, 18 March.
Rosenberg, Karen, “An Afternoon in Chelsea,” New York Magazine, 7 May.
“Mickalene Thomas.” The New Yorker: Goings on about town, 7 May.
Swartz, Anne, “Sex Privilege and Power: The Paintings of Mickalene Thomas”, NY ARTS, May.
Trends, “Mickalene Thomas”, Muse Magazine, 10 January.
2006 Camper, Fred. “Desire in the Abstract.” Chicago Reader, November.
Cotter, Holland. “Do You Think I’m Disco.” New York Times, February.
Genocchio, Benjamin. “Exploring the Effects of Disco’s Beat.” New York Times, February.
Gronlund, Melissa. “Frequency.” Frieze, March.
Haber, John. “Frequency.” Haber’s Art Reviews, February.
Kastner, Jeffrey. “Frequency.” Art Forum, January.
Lynn, Sue. “One Gal’s Opinion of Art Basel.” Entertainment and News, December.
Oppenheim, Phil. “5X5 Five Artist/Five Perspectives.” Art Papers, January.
Peterson, Kristen. “The Look Is a Blast from the Past.” Las Vegas Sun, November.
Ribas, Joao. “Emerging Collectors: A Profile of John Morrissey.” ArtInfo, January.
Ross, Susan. “More, More, More.” NYARTS (May/June)
Spence, Rebecca. “How Street It Is.” ArtNews, February.
Stillman, Nick, “Frequency.” Brooklyn Rail, February.
Thorncroft, Anthony. “Basel Comes to the Beach.” Financial Times, 2 December.
Valdez, Sarah. “Frequency Bling and Beyond.” Art in America, April.
2005 Feaster, Felicia. “Five works by five artists 5X5 takes a mostly critical look at our mediadrenched culture.” Creative Loafing, October.
Feaster, Felicia. “Buy and Large exhibit explores our devouring desire for more stuff.” Creative Loafing, June.
Frank, Peter. “NeoVernacular, Good Clean Fun.” L.A. Weekly, December.
Gardner, James. “They’re Unknown, Under 30 and From New York.” New York Post, 23 March.
Rimanelli, David. “Greater New York 2005.” ArtForum, May.
Sirmans, Franklin. “This Woman’s Work.” Essence Magazine, November.
Smith, Roberta. “Where Issues of Black Identity Meet the Concerns of Every Artist.” New York Times, 18 November.
Wiley, Kehinde. “Top Ten.” Artforum, April.
2004
Laster, Paul. “Back to Back at SMH.” WBurg 4, no. 2, August.
Mills, Michael. “Through A Fractured Lens.” Newtimes bpb.com, 18 November.
Nichols, Matthew Guy. “Hands on Hands Down.” Art in America, February.
Smith, Roberta. “Art in Review.” New York Times, 23 January.
Weinberg, Michelle. “It’s All About Me.” Miami Newtimes.com, 25 November.
2003 Goings On About Town. New Yorker, 27 August.
Kim, Christine. “Hands on, Hands Down.” Studio Museum in Harlem (brochure)
Lectures/Symposia
2010
Artist’s Lecture, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI
Artist’s Lecture, Columbia College, Chicago, IL
2009
Generation Next: Mickalene Thomas and the Legacy, Santa Monica Museum, CA
Artist’s Talk, Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT
2008
ReIGNITE: Making Art in the World, Panel Discussion, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
2007
Artist’s Talk, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
MICA Senior Thesis Seminar, Brown Center Falvey Hall, Baltimore, MD
2006
The Stoop Series, Bric’s Rotunda Gallery & NY Magazine, New York, NY
2005
Conversations with the Artists, MoMA, New York, NY
2004
Artist’s Voice, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
2003
Fine Arts Seminar, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
Artist’s Voice, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Panel Discussion, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
Two Years, Pratt Panel, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
2002
Artist’s Talk, Exploration Senior Summer Program, New Haven, NY
Awards
2009
Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant
Pratt Institue Alumni Achievement Award
2007
Rema Hort Mann Grant
2002
Barry Cohen Scholarship, Yale University
2001
Paul Harper Fellowship, Yale University
2000
Presidential Merit Scholarship, Yale University
1999
Elizabeth Stokel Battell Fellowship, Yale University
Public Collections
21c Museum
The Akron Art Museum
The Art Institute of Chicago
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
Brooklyn Museum
The Guggenheim Museum, New York
Hara Museum of Contemporary Art
The International Center of Photography
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
The Museum of Modern Art PS1, New York
Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, NC
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art
New York Public Library
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC
The Rubell Family Collection
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Sender Collection
The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
The Studio Museum of Harlem
Taschen Collection
The Mikki and Stanley Weithorn Collection
Whitney Museum of American Art
West Collection
Yale University
Catalogues
2009
Dress Codes, The Third ICP Triennial of Photograph and Video, ICP/Steidl
Posing Beauty by Deborah Willis
100 Contemporary Artists, Tachen
The Glamour Project, Glamour Magazine and Lehmann Maupin Gallery
Mickalene Thomas, Región de Murcia, La Conservera Centro de Arte Contemporaneo
2008
30 Americans, Rubell Family Collection
Art Now, Vol. 3, Taschen
The Other Mainstream II: Selections from the Mikki and Stanley Weithorn Collection, Arizona State University Art Museum.
Becoming: Photographs from the Wedge Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art
Art Now: Taschen Calender
2007
FLAVA: Wedge Curatorial Projects (1997-2007) by Wedge
2006
Frequency: Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
Palm Beach Collects: The John Morrissey Collection
2005
Greater New York, P.S.1/MoMA
NeoVernacular: Pop Portraiture, Pulp and Porn
