Project Description

Mickalene Thomas’s Leimert Park Station mosaic was inspired by the quality of light, cultural and visual richness, and iconic structures in the surrounding neighborhood. Before translating the work into a mosaic, the artist used photo collage techniques to create the layered composition, which integrates many of the natural and architectural elements characterizing the community. The Leimert Park Fountain, Vision Theatre, and Japanese-inspired home garden designs are among the featured motifs.

 

Artist Statement

“The artwork makes a sweep across the Los Angeles Basin, from the Pacific to the mountains, interweaving textile swatches, architectural patterns, and images and silhouettes that pay tribute to the bustling energy and distinct character of the neighborhood and city.”

 

About the Artist

MICKALENE THOMAS (b. 1971) is a distinguished visual artist, filmmaker and curator whose critically admired works span painting, collage, video, performance and installations. Her multidisciplinary practice intersects with art history and popular culture related to ideologies of self-image, female sexuality, beauty and power. Blurring the distinction between abstraction and figuration, object and subject, the real and the imaginary, Thomas constructs portraits, landscapes, and interiors that subvert notions of beauty and examine how identity, gender, and subjectivity have been informed by the fetishization of the female body throughout history. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute and Master of Fine Arts from Yale University School of Art. Thomas has an extensive exhibition history with solo presentations at prestigious venues, including the Brooklyn Museum; MoMA PS1; Seattle Art Museum; SFMoMA; National Portrait Gallery; Baltimore Museum of Art; Bass Museum of Art; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Wexner Center for the Arts; and Aspen Art Museum. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Seattle Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and Whitney Museum of American Art, among others. She is the recipient of several awards, including fellowships from United States Artists and Anonymous Was A Woman.