Even though the outcome of Mickalene Thomas’ artistic practice tends to be large-scale paintings encrusted with rhinestones, along the way she is known to take photographs of her subjects as part of that process. Those photographs are now the subject of ‘Muse: Mickalene Thomas Photography and tête-à-tête’, a two-part exhibition at New York's Aperture Foundation.
The show reinterprets themes that Thomas has been exploring throughout her career. Two years ago, for example, at Lehmann Maupin, the gallery that represents her, Thomas showed 'Tête de Femme', a body of work that saw the artist represent the female form through brightly coloured painting and mixed-media collage.
Now, with 'Muse', she has developed a new installation called tête-a-tête, which picks up on that theme, but does so through photography, pairing her creations with work from photographers who have inspired her, such as Carrie Mae Weems, Renée Cox, and Deana Lawson.
This provides a resonance between artists addressing a similar theme. ‘Collaboration isn’t just about two people or a group of people making a single object,’ Thomas says, during a walk-through of the exhibition, suggesting that collaboration can be just as much about the process itself than about a single outcome. ‘It’s also about the spaces and conversations you have. Can you bring that to the forefront?’
Thomas builds elaborate sets to serve as backdrops for her paintings and photographs. One of those is included in the exhibition, allowing visitors to see both the backdrop and some of the photographs set there.
Her preparation for the exhibition itself seems to have provoked something of a mid-career reevaluation. She now considers her photography an end unto itself. ‘I always considered the photographs secondary, but now I consider them primary,’ she says. ‘They were speaking about notions of beauty that my paintings weren’t.'
Referring to the process of putting together the exhibition, she adds, ‘it shifted from it being a resource to my paintings to it being their own bodies of work’.
On view until March 17, the exhibition will travel to other venues after it closes in New York. An accompanying book, Muse: Mickalene Thomas Photographs, compiles the work in a single volume.
While photography has always been part of Thomas' artistic process, she now considers her embrace of the discipline an end unto itself. Pictured: Racquel Leaned Back, 2013
‘I always considered the photographs secondary, but now I consider them primary,’ she says. ‘They were speaking about notions of beauty that my paintings weren’t.’ Pictured: Racquel #6, 2013/2015
Referring to the process of putting together the exhibition, she adds, ‘it shifted from it being a resource to my paintings to it being their own bodies of work’. Pictured: Negress with Green Nails, 2005
An accompanying book, Muse: Mickalene Thomas Photographs, compiles the work in a single volume
INFORMATION
'Muse: Mickalene Thomas Photography and tête-à-tête' is on view until 17 March. For more details, please visit the Aperture Foundation's website
Photography courtesy the artist, Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong, and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
ADDRESS
Aperture Foundation
547 West 27th Street
4th Floor
New York City
-
This Shelter Island house is designed as a ‘modern cabin’Shelter Island house by Koning Eizenberg is designed with a ‘modern cabin’ approach and aesthetic, keeping the owners close to nature
-
Heads up: Nice is an art and design lover’s delight
Beyond sun and sea, Nice is full of cultural and culinary highlights: here’s our pick of its art, food and design destinations
-
Art, science, and activism coalesce in ‘Thus waves come in pairs’ at Ocean Space, Venice
‘Thus waves come in pairs’, an exhibition of two new commissions at Ocean Space in Venice, features potent work by Simone Fattal, and artist duo Petrit Halilaj & Álvaro Urbano
-
Matthew Day Jackson: ‘I want digital and analogue to fit together perfectly so we can regain our hands’
American artist-designer Matthew Day Jackson’s new show 'Against Nature' at Pace Gallery, New York offers a sharp digital spin on landscape painting
-
Janny Baek’s psychedelic ceramics are objects in flux
Korean-American architect and sculptor Janny Baek speaks about expressing ‘vibrancy, pleasure, and hope’ through her vivid ceramics, ahead of a major show at Culture Object, New York (on view until 20 May 2023)
-
New York art exhibitions: what to see in 2023
As Frieze 2023 gets ready to touch down at The Shed, explore our ongoing guide to the best New York art exhibitions 2023 for your diary
-
Los Angeles exhibitions: the best shows to see right now
Read our ongoing picks of the best new and upcoming LA art exhibitions to see under the California sun
-
John-Paul Philippe presents ‘Ombre’, an evocative show at Cristina Grajales, New York
New York gallerist Cristina Grajales presents 'Ombre' by John-Paul Philippe (until 28 April 2023): the artist tells us about this new body of work, and finding inspiration in parakeets
-
Wangechi Mutu’s fantastical creatures take over the New Museum
Wangechi Mutu’s ‘Intertwined' at the New Museum, NYC, until 4 June 2023, is a major survey spanning the full breadth of the Kenyan-born American artist’s work
-
Heaven on Earth: architect Toshiko Mori curates Candida Höfer’s sublime new photography show
At Sean Kelly, New York, architect Toshiko Mori is curating a new show by Candida Höfer, spanning a 30-year period of the German photographer’s spatially sublime work
-
‘The Yanomami Struggle’: piercing New York show sheds light on an Amazonian community under critical threat
Now on view at The Shed in New York, ‘The Yanomami Struggle’ is a poignant exhibition dedicated to the friendship between artist and activist Claudia Andujar and the Yanomami people, and their collective fight against invasion
