Mickalene Thomas

Mickalene Thomas adorns her vibrant collages and patterns with her iconic rhinestones, a symbol of femininity.

Though Mickalene draws from a number of time periods and genres, her use of patterns and domestic spaces often references various periods from the 1960s to the 1980s – a time of immense social and political conflict, change, and transformation—the civil rights movement, the black is beautiful movement, and the second wave of feminism—during which many women, particularly African-Americans, rejected and redefined traditional standards of beauty.

Mickalene 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.