"The exhibition centers the visibility, agency, and radical joy of Black women, celebrating love as a generative force-of liberation, self-definition, and community. Through richly textured compositions and her iconic rhinestone-studded surfaces, Thomas depicts her subjects-friends, family, lovers, and cultural figures-with a confidence and sensuality that reclaims spaces where Black women have been historically overlooked or misrepresented. With this exhibition, she becomes the first African-American artist to receive a major solo presentation at the Grand Palais."
"A multidisciplinary force, Thomas draws from art history, the vernacular archive, and the riotous language of popular culture. Her world-making-across painting, photography, collage, video, and installation-reimagines the canon through a lens that centers Black women as authors, subjects, and protagonists of their own narratives. Her portraits do more than depict; they invite. They usher viewers into spaces where intimacy is a framework and joy is resistance."
Mickalene Thomas hosted a dinner at Papa San in New York with friends and collaborators, including Nick Vogelson, Derrick Adams, and Marilyn Minter, ahead of her exhibition. Opening December 17, 2025, All About Love traces more than two decades of work and centers the visibility, agency, and radical joy of Black women, celebrating love as liberation, self-definition, and community. Thomas uses richly textured compositions and rhinestone-studded surfaces to depict friends, family, lovers, and cultural figures with confidence and sensuality that reclaims overlooked spaces. The retrospective spans painting, photography, collage, video, and installation, framing intimacy as a practice and joy as resistance.
Read at Documentjournal
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