Focused on some of her most significant muses, Mickalene Thomas: I Can’t See You Without Me is a gorgeous collection of the Brooklyn-based multi-disciplinary artist’s portraits. With plenty of her signature rhinestone-adorned pieces, the selection of work draws inspiration from classic portraiture, popular culture, blaxploitation and beyond. Exploring identity, sexuality, race and agency, Thomas depicts her subjects in a manner that is somehow grounded and tender, but other-worldly …
It’s not uncommon to wonder what brings an artist from obscurity to attention. How do some names burst forth and leave an imprint of their work—and name—on the brains of people across the world? A little more than half-a-decade ago Laolu Senbanjo was a lawyer (like his father and brother) in Nigeria. Acknowledging that it wasn’t the future he wanted, Senbanjo moved to the States, began making …
Alexander Calder is alive in Downtown LA‘s Hauser & Wirth through the brilliant Calder: Nonspace show—the beloved, departed artist’s first solo show in the city since 2013. The exhibition spans work from 1939 to 1976, including the brilliant artist’s mobiles and maquettes, free-standing structures and floating shapes. The title and thematic arc of the show is inspired by novelist James Jones’ notion of “nonspace” in relationship to …