or more than two decades, Mickalene Thomas has explored Black femininity through a variety of media: painting, photography, drawing, video, and installation. Arguably her most striking images, however, are her collages—rhinestones, acrylic, paper, and enamel layered with figures cut out from her own studio photographs, vintage magazine calendars, or at once celebrates and challenges Édouard Manet) or coyly cropping and covering found photographs (as in her series), Thomas uses glitter, vibrant patterns, and surprising textures to place Black women at the center of her work.
