5 Days to 30 Americans
(born 1971)
While exploring and challenging long-held notions of feminine beauty, Mickalene Thomas uses rhinestones, acrylic, and enamel to create stupendously textured paintings. Sometimes she pairs these paintings with video installations that juxtapose Blaxploitation film imagery with that of classic Western European portraiture.
Thomas’s influences range from historical figures such as Henri Matisse and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres to contemporary artists such as Carrie Mae Weems and Kara Walker. She also looks to 1970s Blaxploitation films and music legends such as Eartha Kitt, Bessie Smith, Sharon Jones, and Billie Holiday
Learn more about the 30 Americans exhibition at http://arkansasartscenter.org/30-Americans.
To view Thomas’s work visit http://mickalenethomas.com/.

photo: Greg Cook, www.wbur.org
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