Mickalene Thomas

The Great Women Artists

Katy Hessel

Arts

4.8 • 877 Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2023

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

THIS WEEK on the GWA Podcast, I interview one of the most renowned artists working in the world right now, Mickalene Thomas. Working across painting, photography, installation, film, collage and more, Thomas, for the past two decades has been instrumental in forging an identity for figuration in the 21st century. Positioning her subjects – bold, beautiful women – in often large-scale work that commands the same power as that of Old Master Painting, Thomas lionises her subjects, whether they be friends, family members or lovers, by imbuing them with glittering rhinestone crystals and rich, colourful patterning, in atmospheres that are full of freedom, full of liberation. Drawing from pop culture and history – think Grace Jones to the 19th century French painters – and striving to encapsulate the beauty and glamour she witnessed in Jet magazine when growing up, Thomas also re-stages, reclaims, art-historical compositions by reworking paintings from the lens of a Black queer woman. In 2013, she said: ‘Portraits are very powerful. They have a great representation and dominance in the world... of trying to capture the essence of someone’ and just to prove how powerful this was on her own career, it was after seeing legendary photographer Carrie Mae Weems’s Kitchen Table Series, 1990 that Thomas was inspired to pursue art. Switching from law and enrolling in art school at the Pratt Institute, Thomas then went on to earn her MFA from Yale, and has since worked indefatigably to elevate the presence of Black women in art. Thomas has exhibited at the world’s most prestigious institutions, from the Brooklyn Museum to MOCA Los Angeles, Spellman College to the ICA in Boston, but she has also been a force at uplifting the careers of others – such as, in recent shows, curating exhibitions alongside her own featuring younger names, making for a more exciting and inclusive art history, that others have followed her in doing. Follow us: Katy Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel Sound editing by Mikaela Carmichael Artwork by @thisisaliceskinner Music by Ben Wetherfield https://www.thegreatwomenartists.com/ THIS EPISODE IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY OCULA: https://ocula.com/

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome back to the Great Woman Artist podcast. Last week we interviewed the
0:05.6	transfixing artist Kee-Smith on all things dreams, myth and desire. And this week we speak to the
0:12.1	fantastic Brooklyn-based painter, McAleen Thomas. But first, I am delighted to say that this
0:18.0	episode is supported by Ocula. Ocula provides online access to the very
0:22.7	best of contemporary art. If you want to follow and learn more about the world's leading galleries
0:27.7	and artists, then do visit Ocula.com. I hope you enjoy this episode.
0:36.6	Hello everyone and welcome to the Great Women Artist podcast with me, Katie Hessel.
0:42.9	Some of you might know me from The Great Women Artists, an Instagram account I set up in October
0:47.2	2015, which celebrates female artists on a daily basis, ranging from young graduates to old
0:53.3	masters. Well, in a young graduates to old masters.
0:56.8	Well, in a similar fashion to the Instagram,
1:00.3	this podcast is all about celebrating female artists from a variety of backgrounds and histories.
1:03.0	And I am so excited to be interviewing artists on their career,
1:06.8	or artists, writers, curators, or general art lovers
1:09.6	on the women artist who means most of them.
1:12.6	What I want this podcast to do is celebrate female artists in all different capacities
1:17.2	so you, the listener, can gain a look into the greatest female artists working now or from art history.
1:26.5	I am so excited to say that my guest on the Great Woman Artist podcast is one of the most
1:31.5	renowned artists working in the world right now, Michelin Thomas. Working across painting,
1:37.9	photography, installation, film, collage and more. Thomas, for the past two decades, has been
1:42.8	instrumental in forging an identity
1:45.1	for figuration in the 21st century.
	...

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