NYC painter brings art inspired by Black female erotica imagery to Chelsea show

New York-based visual artist and painter Mickalene Thomas, who is known for embellishing her portraits of Black women with rhinestones and acrylic, currently has two shows running in the tristate area.

“Je t’adore,” at the Yancey Richardson gallery in Chelsea, includes 13 large-scale pieces featuring the Black female form.

With these pieces, Thomas features new work inspired by imagery of Black female erotica.

And over at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, Thomas co-organized a multigallery installation called “Portrait of an Unlikely Space.”

That show includes 18th and 19th century portraits of African Americans, miniatures and silhouettes on paper, placed in rooms of the era and juxtaposed with modern pieces like Sula Bermúdez’s 2021 replica of her childhood dollhouse, but made of sugar.

Thomas spoke to WNYC’s Alison Stewart on a recent episode of “All of It.” Below is an edited transcript of their conversation; you can listen to the entire interview here.

Stewart: Part of your exhibition in New York City is inspired by research into the imagery of Black women from old Jet magazines. What do you remember about your first exposure to Jet?

Thomas: Oh my gosh. My first memory is just having the Jet magazine on the coffee table, and flipping through and being so enamored with the “Beauty of the Week” page.

Seeing these incredible women in their bathing suits, but just talking about who they were and what they did. It really gave me a sense of agency and validation.

I think it was probably one of the first times I felt like, “Oh, this is beauty. Oh, these are beautiful Black women on this page.” That excited me.

Jet magazine displayed all of this knowledge about Black life, Black America, whether it was sociopolitical, cultural, entertainment or even about local people. Then it had this page of this college girl describing her attributes and what she liked.

That’s why our parents left it out. They…