Mickalene Thomas | To be an Artist is a Radical Act

Welcome to Season 2 of The Art Career Podcast

In Episode 1 we welcome artist Mickalene Thomas. 

In preparation for her solo exhibition at Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris, we discuss the power of Art, reincarnation, and how black erotica fills the void of aspirational love.

Mickalene Thomas and Emily McElwreath

Mickalene Thomas (lives and works in Brooklyn, NY) makes paintings, collages, photography, video, and installations that draw on art history and popular culture to create a contemporary vision of female sexuality, beauty, and power. Blurring the distinction between object and subject, concrete and abstract, real and imaginary, Thomas constructs complex portraits, landscapes, and interiors in order to examine how identity, gender, and sense-of-self are informed by the ways women (and “feminine” spaces) are represented in art and popular culture.

Thomas received a B.F.A. from the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY in 2000 and an M.F.A. from Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT in 2002.

In 2012 A blockbuster Brooklyn Museum exhibition established Thomas as one of the leading artists of her generation. In the decade since her Brooklyn exhibition Thomas’ work has been purchased by institutions ranging form the museum of modern art to the Guggenheim, from the Whitney to the studio museum in Harlem and from museums in Boston, Chicago, Tokyo and more. She has held solo exhibitions all over the world.

Thomas has truly became a master of the female nude form and erotic suggestion in addition to having the drive and commitment to her practice that is unparalleled.