Afro Goddess Looking Forward

Born in Camden in 1971, Mickalene Thomas is an American painter and photographer. Trained at Southern Cross University, Lismore (1998), she holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn (2000), and a Master of Fine Arts from Yale University School of Arts, New Haven (2002). She is best known for her intricate paintings using rhinestones, acrylic and enamel. Her work draws on Western art history, pop art and visual culture to examine ideas of femininity, beauty, race, sexuality and gender. Her first major solo exhibition was held in 2012 at the Brooklyn Museum in New York and the Santa Monica Museum of Art in California. She has since enjoyed several solo exhibitions, but has also participated in a large number of group shows at the International Center of Photography in New York, the Museum of African Diaspora in San Francisco and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. Mickalene Thomas has been represented by Galerie Nathalie Obadia since 2014.