Mickalene Thomas is a New York-based artist who boldly uses enamel, acrylic, and rhinestones in her larger-than-life pieces. Often known for her portraits, Thomas’ work points to identity, gender, and beauty standards. Even more specifically, how women are represented and presented in pop culture. The two portraits gifted to the college are of the most recognizable women in journalism and politics, Oprah Winfrey and Condoleezza Rice.
Her use of lines and contours creates harsh expressions on both women’s faces. With the addition of the costume-like “blingy” rhinestones, these harsh lines are softened yet made symbolic, hinting at the subject’s femininity whilst not diminishing their power. This confronts misconceptions about powerful woman, demonstrating that women can be forces of nature whilst maintaining feminine identity. Thomas is not afraid to confront ideas of gender and identity in art by tackling some of the most well-known faces in pop culture.
Thomas is no stranger to confronting standards of beauty. The first time I had an interaction with a piece by Mickalene Thomas was back in 2019, when I saw her work Three Graces at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. This piece, similar to those in the When Ends Meet series, had stark, bright coloring and detailed placement of rhinestones on three women, all dressed in disco attire, moving through a broken, stained glass-like environment. Once again challenging typical ideas of identity, Thomas takes the idea from Greek mythology of the “three graces” and instead replaces the white, European standards of beauty with the beauty of Black women.
Both When Ends Meet are on loan from the collection of President Carol Quillen and George McLendon. These pieces can be seen in our past show “True Likeness” at this link: https://www.davidsoncollegeartgalleries.org/dcag-exhibitions/true-likeness/
– Sarah Willoughby ’25