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MICKALENE THOMAS
AN ICONIC CULTURAL ‘REMIXER’
BY RACHEL VANCELETTE
Calling 49-year-old artist Mickalene Thomas’ ascension in the art world ‘meteoric’ is an understatement. Her works in the mediums of photography, collage, and printmaking are today exhibited all over the globe to rave reviews and reside coveted in numerous prestigious collections. A momentous transformation in her artwork occurred after receiving a critical letter in her first year at Yale University, which she said abruptly moved her into a contemporary and, most agree, irresistible style. “At that time it was horrible, you felt you were singled out as a failure,” she said. “But in retrospect it was fantastic, and I’ve noticed that most of us who got those letters saw a dynamic shift in our work.” Thomas was given her first real show in Chicago at the Rhona Hoffman Gallery, 2006, but she really exploded on the scene in 2012, after her work became recognized, was featured in several notable magazines, and she was taken on by Lehmann Maupin’’s gallery in
Naomi Looking Forward #2, 2016 (detail) Rhinestones, acrylic, enamel and oil on wood panel 84 × 132 in. (213.4 × 335.3 cm) Purchase, acquired through the generosity of the Contemporary and Modern Art Council of the Norton Museum of Art, 2016.245a-b © 2018 Mickalene Thomas / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Mickalene Thomas, Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe: Les trois femmes noires (detail), 2010. Rhinestones, acrylic, and enamel on wood panel, 304.8 x 731.5 cm. The Rachel and Jean-Pierre Lehmann Collection © Mickalene Thomas The painting re-casts the Three Graces from Greek Mythology as African American Women dressed in 70’s clothing …she “introduces a complex vision of what it means to be a woman and expands common definitions of beauty...”
NYC. Before that, Thomas was commissioned in 2010 for The Museum of Modern Art’s restaurant window where, on a massive scale, she remade Manet’s 1863 “Le Déjeuner Sur l’herbe,” replacing the idealized picnic scene with three stylish African American women. Ian Alteveer, the Met curator said of her work. “It’s seductive while at the same time it is meant to reference the street, the city, fashion, and memory.”
To create her compelling collage paintings, she has borrowed likenesses and poses from established masters such as Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Edouard Manet, Henri Matisse, and Romare. For Mickalene’s more explicit, and some say sensitive work, she owes a particular debt to Gustave Courbet, the 19th-century French realist. Mickalene says, “If I wanted to be controversial, I would have used photographs. But I’m not interested in being so literal and direct. Paintings give you more room for illusion and fantasy, more room to discover things.” Thomas begins her imaginative painting process with carefully choreographed and curated photographs she styles and stages herself. Hours are spent on every detail from background layout to individual subject styling before the photoshoot even begins. Depending on the medium she chooses, her dazzling collage portraits include the use of superimposed oils, enamel, acrylics, the ever-present Swarovski crystals, and rhinestones
Mickalene Thomas, Qusuquzah Lounging with Pink + Black Flower, 2016, rhinestones, acrylic, and oil on wood panel. ©MICKALENE THOMAS/ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK/PRIVATE COLLECTION
which can define both the subjects and the surface of the paintings. An Australian university experience in 1998 infused her work with certain aboriginal influences, although most of her contemporary art seems inspired by other popular art eras mirroring muses from Pop Art, Neo-Impressionism, Pointillism, including Cubism, Dada, and the Harlem Renaissance movements. The rhinestones create something more than just bling, says curator Lisa Melandri, “In portraits her use of rhinestones becomes this highlighting mechanism for the eyes and lips, creating shimmer or dynamism,…“But in landscapes it’s not just decorative — it makes spaces that move in and out and makes you think about the light on the furniture.”
Mickalene Thomas, with nuanced rebelliousness, consistently excels with her notso-subtle character re-creations and pointed symbolism, expressing both the personal and the collective Black experience. She is generating quite consciously a new culturally diverse art experience whose influence is now often imitated. Inside the art world, critics are cheering her all-inclusiveness, and outside the art world, she is seen as a Superstar. Michelle Obama sat for her in 2010 and for the past 10 years, her focus has drifted toward the creation of striking portraits in which her women subjects challenge the stereotypical Black body types seen in 19th Century artworks. Her aesthetic presents a curvaceous, brassy and bold African
American beauty staged in classical historical poses. As a way of self-expression and also to play with the idea of portraiture, she made the decision to assert her own personal preferences and power by using her own body in some of her work. Truly an original Remixer for the modern African American generation and culture, this brash, fearless artist remains a force of nature – clearly with the wind at her back.
Thomas received a BFA from the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, in 2000 and an MFA from Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT, in 2002. She has been awarded multiple prizes and grants, including the USA Francie Bishop Good & David Horvitz Fellow (2015); Brooklyn Museum Asher B. Durand Award (2012); and the Timehri Award for Leadership in the Arts (2010), the BOMB Magazine Honor (2015), MoCADA Artistic Advocacy Award (2015), AICA-USA Best Show in a Commercial Space Nationally, First Place (2014), Anonymous Was A Woman Grant (2013), Audience Award: Favorite Short, Second Annual Black Star Film Festival (2013), She is represented by Lehmann Maupin in New York; Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects; Kavi Gupta in Chicago and Galerie Nathalie Obadia in Paris. Thomas’s prolific body of work is held in many collections, including 21c Museum, Akron Art Museum, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Baltimore Museum of Art, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Honolulu Museum of Art, International Center of Photography, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Museum of Modern Art, National Portrait Gallery, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, New York Public Library, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Rubell Family Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Seattle Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Studio Museum in Harlem, Taschen Collection, Mikki and Stanley Weithorn Collection, Whitney Museum of American Art, West Collection, and Yale University Art Gallery.
BY LILLIAN LANGTRY
Samuel Waxman, M.D. founder and CEO of the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation (SWCRF) received the prestigious Jacobi Medallion from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The health system recognized Dr. Waxman and eight others for making significant contributions to medicine in a virtual ceremony held this week.
This prestigious recognition represents Dr. Waxman’s dedication to clinical and research excellence, and the trust placed in him by so many throughout his distinguished career as an oncologist, hematologist, research scientist, founder, and CEO of the SWCRF.
In his acceptance speech, Dr. Waxman talked about an early discovery by a virologist at Mount Sinai at the time, who discovered that differentiation therapy could be used to correct a vitamin deficiency related to pernicious anemia.
“That got me so excited I changed my direction from the B12 Folate deficiencies to the belief that we could bring a differentiation therapy to leukemia. That provided new resources and support. The institution [Mount Sinai] stood behind me. But more than any other, the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation provided the sources and resources to recruit people here and elsewhere to make a form of leukemia, Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL) become a curable disease because it was due to a vitamin a deficiency as a result of a gene mistake. This is an amazing clinical outcome, and I’ve been on that quest to do this to other forms of cancer.”
“Sam Waxman has been a great oncologist and hematologist of Mount Sinai for decades. He has formed the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation. He has help fund hundreds of research projects that has led to new ideas about the causes of serious forms of cancer and the developments of new treatments,” said Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System.
Dr. Waxman’s passion for curing cancer and research started with the idea that collaboration - across expertise, research institutions, and even national borders - is the key to breaking down barriers and achieving more breakthroughs.
His collegial approach and transparency led to, at the time, an unprecedented research collaboration in China that successfully used differentiation therapy as a less-toxic and more effective form of treatment for APL. That treatment cures more than 95% of patients with APL and is widely used to this day.
From this early landmark achievement, Dr. Waxman’s collaborative research led to many more discoveries that have improved the lives of those dealing with cancer.
The Jacobi Medallion is one of Mount Sinai’s highest awards to recognize its alumni for distinguished achievements in medicine.
“I am delighted to accept this award with my wife loving wife, Marion, who has been with me during my tenure at Mount Sinai. It started in 1963 when I started here as an intern. I was fortunate to have the support of amazing colleagues both in the clinic as well as in the lab,” said Dr. Waxman. “Mount Sinai has gone from a wonderful hospital to a world-class medical school and health care system. It is a model in New York City and around the world.”
waxmancancer.org
NEW YORK SOCIAL SCENE A BROKERS SHOWING, A DISCO BALL, HELPING ANIMALS, & A GOLF TOURNAMENT
By Clara Morgan
Renaissance Properties hosted an exclusive brokers event on the rooftop of the recently renovated historic commercial space in Noho: Bradley Fishel, Maria Fishel, Kenneth Fishel ©Matteo Prandoni/BFA Jarad Winter, Matthew Augarten at Renaissance Properties exclusive brokers event in Noho ©Matteo Prandoni/BFA Darrell Handler, Kenneth Fishel, JD Cohen at Renaissance Properties exclusive brokers event in Noho ©Matteo Prandoni/BFA
Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation gave donors the Patti LaBelle performs at Gabrielle’s Angel chance to relive the Studio 54 days at a Virtual Foundation’s Virtual Disco Party Disco Party. Guests raised over $1 million to fund ©Getty Images critical cancer research as host DJ Cassidy kept them dancing all night: Denise Rich ©Getty Images Nile Rodgers performs at Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation’s Virtual Disco Party ©Getty Images
Philanthropist Jean Shafiroff hosted a special fundraiser for the Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation (SASF) at NAIA Restaurant at the Capri Hotel in Southampton, NY: Jean and Martin Shafiroff ©Rob Rich/Society Allure Raya and Clifton Knight at Jean Shafiroff’s fundraiser for the Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation (SASF) ©Rob Rich/Society Allure The Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation (SWCRF) held its 38th Annual Golf Tournament at the scenic Fresh Meadow Country Club in Lake Success, NY: Samuel Waxman MD, Ann Liguori ©Charles E. Manley
