Family photos of Sandra Bush. © Mickalene Thomas. Courtesy of the artist.
Phillips is proud to support Mickalene Thomas: Better Nights at The Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach, FL. Beginning on December 1, the exhibition will transform the museum’s galleries into an immersive experience, inspired by parties the artist’s mother would throw in the 1970s and 80s to raise money for local causes such as community theater and sickle cell anemia.
Mickalene Thomas: Better Nights, installation view at The Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, December 1, 2019 - September 27, 2020. Image courtesy The Bass, photography by Zachary Balber.
Better Nights is a continuation of the artist’s 2013 show, Better Days. First introduced at the Galerie Volkhaus during Art Basel 2013, this second chapter is timed to open with Art Basel Miami 2019. Organized by the artist herself and co-curated with Bass Executive Director Silvia Karman Cubiñá, this iteration seeks to recreate the aesthetic of a home while fundamentally reconstructing the space as an extension of Thomas’ artistic universe, toying with artifice in the midst of memory.
Mickalene Thomas: Better Nights, installation view at The Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, December 1, 2019 - September 27, 2020. Image courtesy The Bass, photography by Zachary Balber.
In addition to her own works, Thomas also curated a selection of pieces by prominent and emerging black artists. These works include painting and photography by Nina Chanel Abney, Derrick Adams, Lyle Ashton Harris and Paul Mpagi Sepuya, as well as video work Christie Neptune and Devin N. Morris, among many others. Rounding out the program is a slate of live performances and appearances featuring Jody Watley, Meshell Ndegocello, Devin Tracy, CHIKA and more.
Now on view, the exhibition continues through 27 September 2020.
Family photos of Sandra Bush. © Mickalene Thomas. Courtesy of the artist.
About the Artist
Mickalene Thomas (b. 1971, Camden, New Jersey), is a New York-based distinguished visual artist, filmmaker and curator that works in various mediums. She received her MFA from Yale University and BFA from Pratt Institute. She is a recipient of the 2019 Meyerhoff-Becker Biennial Commission at the Baltimore Museum of Art, a 2015 United States Artists Francie Bishop Good & David Horvitz Fellow, and is an alumnus of Studio Museum in Harlem and the Versailles Foundation Munn Artists Program in Giverny. Thomas is a recipient of the Aperture Award, Anonymous Was A Woman Award, the 2012 Brooklyn Museum Asher B. Durand Award, Timerhi Award for Leadership in the Arts, the Joan Mitchell Grant and the Pratt Institute Alumni Achievement Award in 2009, and the Rema Hort Mann Grant in 2007. She is a co-founder of Deux Femmes Noires and the Josie Club. She’s exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, The Smithsonian Museum, MoMA PS1, Seattle Art Museum, SFMoMA, National Portrait Gallery, the Baltimore Museum of Art, The Bass, AGO Toronto, The Wexner Center and Aspen Art Museum. Her work is in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, The Whitney Museum, The Guggenheim Museum, The National Portrait Gallery, Newark Museum, Seattle Art Museum, The Hara Museum, The Rubell Collection, The Studio Museum in Harlem, among other public and private institutions and collections. She is on the Board of the Brooklyn Museum of Trustees and MoMA PS1. She is represented by Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago, IL and Natalie Obadia Gallery in Paris, France.
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