The Barnes Foundation will host All About Love, an extraordinary and important exhibition by Mickalene Thomas. Running from October 20, 2024, to January 12, 2025, this exhibition is the East Coast debut of the the artist’s first major international tour offering a deep dive into the vibrant, multifaceted world of Thomas’s art. The exhibit, curated by Renée Mussai, will display approximately 50 works created over the past two decades.
Mickalene Thomas, a Camden, New Jersey native, is a force and a leader in the contemporary art movement. Her approach is characterized by large-scale pieces that capture, engage, and activate Black femininity via a Black feminist point of view.
“All About Love at the Barnes is an embodied visual love letter that moves through different temperatures, honoring the intimate and transformative qualities of Mickalene Thomas’s expansive practice. Her artistic universe is forged from deep within the richly textured Black feminist ero-poetics of desire, where visual pleasures reside abundantly, and the powers of love, of dedicated being, seeing, and looking, are harnessed, amplified, beautified: exquisitely rendered, deliciously gendered.” – Curator Renée Mussai.
Thomas’ All About Love exhibit features works celebrating this creator’s elaborate and vivid artistic process. Included are a series of thematic chapters that explore her iterative approach, highlight her muses, and showcase her dialogue with artists like Monet, Picasso, and Courbet.
Thom Collins, Neubauer Family Executive Director and President of the Barnes Foundation expresses, “We are delighted to present the East Coast debut of Mickalene Thomas: All About Love, part of a major international touring project, and Thomas’s first solo exhibition in Philadelphia. We are honored to share her extraordinary and influential work with our community and beyond.”
In addition to the main exhibition, the Barnes will present four monumental photo collage panels by Thomas, titled Noir est beau (Joséphine Baker 3), in the Annenberg Court. These panels, originally created for Dior’s 2023 couture runway show, feature archival images of the legendary African American singer and dancer Josephine Baker.
Prepare now to witness this critical and transformative display of Mickalene Thomas’s works at The Barnes Foundation. For information and details, visit the Barnes Foundation’s official website.
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