Skip to content Skip to footer
Current Exhibition

Mickalene Thomas:
All About Love

Until January 12, 2025

East Coast debut of first major international tour.

#SeeArtDifferently

Mickalene Thomas. Afro Goddess Looking Forward (detail), 2015. Rhinestones, acrylic, and oil on wood panel. © 2024 Mickalene Thomas

Adults $30; seniors $28 (tickets good for 2 days); students $5; members free

About the Exhibition

Mickalene Thomas: All About Love is the first major international tour focused on the work of pioneering artist Mickalene Thomas (American, b. 1971), whose influences range from 19th-century painting to popular culture. Co-organized by the Hayward Gallery, London, and The Broad, Los Angeles, and in partnership with the Barnes and Les Abattoirs, Musée–Frac Occitanie Toulouse, All About Love is being shown as a series of independent presentations, with further venues to be confirmed.

The Barnes presentation of All About Love showcases a selection of vivid artworks—paintings, collage, photography, video, and site-specific installation—that celebrates Thomas’s distinctive artistic practice from the late 2000s to the present day. Her work is characterized by spectacularly staged, rhinestoned, large-scale painted tableaux and bold, intimate compositions, decisively foregrounding Black femininity in abundant realms of visual pleasure, agency, and kinship. Whether in imaginative dialogue with canonical works from the history of art or playfully reckoning with popular culture, Thomas’s exuberant portraits offer an empowered vision of beauty and desire, formulated through a sensual, Black feminist lens.

Venues
The Broad, Los Angeles (May 25–September 29, 2024)
The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia (October 20, 2024–January 12, 2025)
Hayward Gallery, London (February 11–May 5, 2025)
Les Abattoirs, Musée–Frac Occitanie Toulouse (June 13–November 9, 2025)

 

Mickalene Thomas. Afro Goddess Looking Forward, 2015. Rhinestones, acrylic, and oil on wood panel. © 2024 Mickalene Thomas

About the Artist

Mickalene Thomas (b. 1971, Camden, New Jersey) is one of today’s most influential artists. Her innovative practice has yielded instantly recognizable and widely celebrated aesthetic languages within contemporary visual culture. Thomas completed her MFA at the Yale University School of Art in 2002 and a residency at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 2003, and soon became known for her large-scale acrylic paintings of Black women in states of leisure and repose. Her confident and assured subjects are often depicted in domestic interiors from Black America, claiming the agency of womanhood while deconstructing the art historical canon. Outside of her core practice, Thomas is a Tony Award–nominated co-producer, curator, educator, and mentor to many emerging artists. Thomas’s work has become an undeniable force within the contemporary art world and an indispensable inspiration to younger generations of artists. She lives and works in New York. Photograph by Emil Horowitz

 

Exhibition Organization

Mickalene Thomas: All About Love is co-organized by the Hayward Gallery, London, and The Broad, Los Angeles, and in partnership with the Barnes and Les Abattoirs, Musée–Frac Occitanie Toulouse. The Barnes presentation is curated by independent curator and scholar Renée Mussai.

Catalogue

Mickalene Thomas: All About Love

$60

This major publication affirms Mickalene Thomas’s status as a key figure of contemporary art. It features notable works arranged in thematic chapters, an interview with the artist by Hayward Gallery chief curator Rachel Thomas, and essays by scholars and curators that cover Thomas’s distinct visual vocabulary, drawing on themes of love and intergenerational female empowerment as well as tenets of Black feminist theory. Hardcover; 224 pages

Related Programs

Member Previews
Thursday, October 17, 10 am–5 pm
Friday, October 18, 10 am–4 pm
Saturday, October 19, 10 am–5 pm
Members are invited to see Mickalene Thomas: All About Love before it opens.

Barnes Art Ball
Friday, October 18, 7 pm
Our annual fundraiser brings together artists, collectors, philanthropists, and community partners for a night of diverse and dynamic creative experiences. All About Love sets the tone and serves as the backdrop for this dazzling evening as we celebrate Mickalene Thomas.

Curators in Conversation
Sunday, October 20, 1 pm
On-site and online
Join us for an engaging conversation featuring artist Mickalene Thomas and exhibition curator Renée Mussai.

In Focus Gallery Talks
November 18 and December 16, 3–3:30 pm
Emma Nell Jacobs, a doctoral candidate in the history of art at the University of Pennsylvania, leads in-depth discussions on works in All About Love.

Exhibition Tours: All About Love
Daily, 1 pm
Take an in-depth exhibition tour to learn more about Thomas’s work and practice.

Private Exhibition Tours: All About Love
Daily
Book a private exhibition tour for up to eight guests to learn more about Thomas’s work and practice.

Members-Only Gallery Tours: All About Love
Thursdays, 2–3 pm
Members are invited to attend exclusive exhibition tours.

Members-Only Online Tours: All About Love
October 30, November 13, and December 11, 2–3 pm
Members are invited to attend exclusive online exhibition tours.

First Friday

November 1, December 6, January 3; 6–9 pm
Enjoy an evening of art, live music, and light fare on the first Friday of each month, with access to the collection and All About Love. Our November event features saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins; Yolanda Wisher & the Afroeaters perform in December and R&B singer Black Buttafly in January.

PECO Free First Sunday Family Day

November 3, December 1, January 5; 10 am–5 pm
On the first Sunday of every month, the Barnes partners with PECO to offer a free day of family fun. Along with art making, educational activities, and featured performances, the event includes complimentary access to the Barnes collection and All About Love.

All About Love: Second Saturday Film Series
November 9, December 14, January 11; 2 pm
Join us for a special three-part film series inspired by All About Love. Curated by BlackStar Film Festival founder Maori Karmael Holmes, this program includes feature-length and short films that explore themes of kinship, femininity, and desire. More information coming soon.

Young Professionals Night: All About Love
Friday, November 15, 7–11 pm
It’s time to shine! This fall’s edition of Barnes Young Professionals Night celebrates the emerging creatives who fuel Philly’s vibrant cultural scene and includes access to All About Love. More information coming soon.

Sponsors

Mickalene Thomas: All About Love at the Barnes is sponsored by:

Additional support is provided by Agnes Gund, Denise Littlefield Sobel, the Edna W. Andrade Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation, Emily and Michael Cavanagh, Ralph Citino and Lawrence Taylor, Marianne N. Dean, Arthur M. Kaplan and R. Duane Perry, Sarah Morthland, Ogilvie Family Foundation, Eileen Rosenau, Dalila Wilson-Scott and S. Christopher Scott, Josephine and Sam Switzenbaum, Brenda A. and Larry D. Thompson, an anonymous donor, and other generous individuals.

Ongoing funding for exhibitions comes from the Christine and Michael Angelakis Exhibition Fund, the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Exhibition Fund, the Lois and Julian Brodsky Exhibition Fund, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the Christine and George Henisee Exhibition Fund, the Aileen and Brian Roberts Exhibition Fund, and the Tom and Margaret Lehr Whitford Exhibition Fund.

In addition, funding for all exhibitions comes from contributors to the Barnes Foundation Exhibition Fund:

Joan Carter and John Aglialoro, Julia and David Fleischner, Victoria McNeil Le Vine, Leigh and John Middleton, Jeanette and Joe Neubauer

John Alchin and Hal Marryatt, Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz, Lois and Julian Brodsky, N. Judith Broudy, Elaine W. Camarda and A. Morris Williams, Jr., Eugene and Michelle Dubay, Penelope P. Harris, Jones & Wajahat Family, Lisa D. Kabnick and John H. McFadden, Victor F. Keen and Jeanne Ruddy, Marguerite Lenfest, Maribeth and Steven Lerner, Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation, Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan, The Park Family, Wendy and Mark Rayfield, Anne and Bruce Robinson, Adele K. Schaeffer, Katie and Tony Schaeffer, Donna and Jerry Slipakoff, Dr. and Mrs. Eugene E. Stark, Joan F. Thalheimer, Bruce and Robbi Toll, van Beuren Charitable Foundation, Kirsten White, Randi Zemsky and Bob Lane, Anonymous.