Mickalene Thomas: All About Love

Contemporary African-American artist Mickalene Thomas has created a dramatic body of work that ranges from painting, collage and print to photography, video and immersive installations. The book -- and the exhibition at the Broad Museum on which it is based -- shares its title with the pivotal text by feminist author bell hooks, in which love is an active process rooted in healing, carving a path away from domination and towards collective liberation. Through her probing investigations of pop culture and mass media, Thomas makes a reverberating demand for Black women to be seen and understood, and for viewers to become what hooks calls “practitioners of love.” With influences ranging from 19th-century painting to popular culture, Thomas’ art articulates a complex and empowering vision of womanhood while upending traditional definitions of beauty, sexuality, celebrity and politics. This major publication further affirms Thomas’ status as a key, influential figure in contemporary art. It