BALTIMORE, MD.- The Maryland Institute College of Art and the Aperture Foundation announce “Muse and tête-à-tête,” a survey of highly stylized portrait photography by Mickalene Thomas, with an accompanying exhibition of photography curated by Thomas. The exhibition also includes an installation that represents a reconstructed portion of Thomas’ studio where many of the portraits were taken.
The exhibitions are on view Jan. 27 through March 12 at MICA’s Meyerhoff Gallery, Fox Building, 1301 W Mount Royal Avenue.
Known for her large-scale, multi-textured paintings of domestic interiors and portraits, Thomas has also made photography a defining touchstone of her practice. In “Muse: Mickalene Thomas Photographs,” her portraits, which typically feature women posed dramatically in retro-furnished rooms, draw equally from 1970s black-is-beautiful images of women, such as supermodel Beverly Johnson and actress Vonetta McGee, as they do Édouard Manet’s odalisque figures and the mise-en-scène studio portraiture of James Van Der Zee and Malick Sidibé.
Most importantly, the collection of portraits represents a community of inspiration for Thomas, the muses—including herself, her mother, her friends and her lovers—that emphasize the social and shared aspects of art-making and creativity.
Muse, a photo book published by Aperture to coincide with the exhibition, is the first publication to feature Thomas’ varied approaches to photography, including portraits, collages, Polaroids and other techniques.
The accompanying exhibition, “tête-à-tête,” features photography by artists who have inspired Thomas’ work, including Derrick Adams, Renée Cox, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Lyle Ashton Harris, Deana Lawson, Zanele Muholi, Malick Sidibé, Xaviera Simmons, Hank Willis Thomas and Carrie Mae Weems. Selected from multiple generations, the artists curated by Thomas represent a large and diverse community of inspiration.
Mickalene Thomas (born in Camden, New Jersey, 1971) earned her BFA in painting at Pratt Institute in 2000 and an MFA at the Yale University School of Art in 2002. Thomas participated in residencies at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, 2000–2003, and at the Versailles Foundation Munn Artists Program, Giverny, France, 2011. Her work has been included in countless exhibitions worldwide, including at La Conservera, Ceutí, Spain (2009); National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. (2010); Hara Museum, Tokyo (2011); Santa Monica Museum of Art, California (2012); and Brooklyn Museum (2012–13). She is represented by Lehmann Maupin in New York, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia in Paris.
