Afro goddess really provides a sense of validation of beauty and owning my space - claiming these notions of who you are in the world and how you see yourself. For most paintings in the Western canon, the discourse is all about the gaze. So I wanted that to be the focal point with the painting, for the viewer to know that the eyes will hold and engage with them, but they can't divert, no matter which way they look.
Mickalene Thomas
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Mickalene Thomas is her own muse in a tableaux exploring self love.
As the Afro Goddess, Mickalene reclines on a couch haloed by her sparkling afro. The portrait centres on the unwavering gaze of the artist’s eyes – cut and pasted from a black and white self-portrait. The bold patterns on her clothes give way to a collaged backdrop that hints at a luxurious interior. Mickalene shrouds her image in the power that Black women are historically excluded from.
Afro Goddess Looking Forward is an early example of Mickalene’s now iconic visual language that blends printmaking, painting, and collage techniques. This faithful edition meticulously translates the original into an 8 layer silkscreen, embellished with glitters to emphasise the iridescence of her hair and clothes.
Mickalene Thomas10 collaborationsMickalene Thomas set out to change the face of art history, and that's exactly what she did. In her loud but tender multimedia portraits, Black femme power, beauty and desire take centre stage. Whether it's the artist herself, her mother, a lover, a friend or a public figure like Michelle Obama, each woman tells her own story. In Thomas' words: "The gaze of my work is unapologetically a Black woman's gaze loving other Black women."¹ This deep sense of adoration and respect comes through in all of her art – not just her portraits but her interiors and photography too. The bright Pop Art-esque blend of photography, collage, paint and craft shop materials like rhinestones has a celebratory feel designed to uplift and empower the next generation. "For me, it's all about trying to inspire and make young girls, when they walk into a space like [a museum], feel a sense of themselves. They see that they're represented."
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