Jan 31, 2022

Mickalene Thomas Covers Whitewall's The Experience Issue

Introducing The Cover Star of Whitewall's Winter 2022 Experience Issue - Mickalene Thomas

Last fall, Thomas embarked on a major endeavor, “Beyond the Pleasure Principle,” a four-city, multi-venue series of blockbuster exhibitions. Opening at Lévy Gorvy’s New York, London, and Hong Kong locations, as well as at Galerie Nathalie Obadia in Paris, the shows featured new works derived from Jet Magazine calendars—a subject with which Thomas first artistically engaged during her time in grad school at Yale—which center representations of the Black body, and a celebration of sensuality. Now in print and on whitewall.art, we’re sharing our conversation with Thomas, discussing the impact of images, the role of composition in collage, and her plans post “Beyond the Pleasure Principle.”

"Not everyone is going to agree with my images. Not everyone’s going to look at them in the way that I see them. Some people might find them problematic, and that’s okay. It’s okay to put works out there that are not always celebrated. It’s okay to take risks and have the discourse be conflicted or complex or rub people the wrong way or disrupt the conversation about respectability. It’s about bringing things to light and having full conversations about all the different ways of how our bodies are presented in the world."

— Mickalene Thomas

Click Here To Read The Entire Interview