Description
Thursday November 14th at 2pm
MICKALENE THOMAS
Jet : Beautés du mois
Galerie Nathalie Obadia
3, rue du Cloître Saint-Merri, 75004 Paris
Then
at 3.30pm
KATINKA BOCK
Tumulte à Higienópolis
Lafayette Anticipations
9 Rue du Plâtre, 75004 Paris
Mickalene Thomas is an essential figure in the art scene of the United States. Thomas’ work has diversified the representation of African-American women in art and pop culture by exploring notions of femininity, beauty, and agency, as most notable in her portraits and domestic interiors staged in powerfully evocative ways.
Sur fond de papiers peints vintages, l’exposition à la galerie présente un ensemble récent de peintures sur panneaux de bois et de collages sur papier, deux mediums de prédilection pour l’artiste. Devenu un enjeu de représentation, le corps de la femme noire occupe ici une place centrale et fait l’objet d’une projection à la fois sociale, historique et fantasmatique, à la croisée de multiples symboles et sources d’inspiration.
Jet: beautés du moms will present a collection of recent paintings on wood panels and collages on paper, two mediums of choice for the artist. In her new works, Thomas reimagines Jet’s representation of African-American women as objects of desire, composing figures within ornamental tableaus to exhibit black and female empowerment.
Thomas also references a history of art that has consistently denied the influence of black models. Her artwork simultaneously pays homage to and yet critiques the traditions of famous avant-garde portraits of the 19th century that have chronicled the history of painting as well as the evolution of society itself. Her work takes on the erotic and scandalous potential of the “Odalisque” by Ingres, as well as “Olympia” or “The Luncheon on the Grass” by Manet, all while questioning notions of beauty throughout the course of history.
Mickalene Thomas was born in 1971 in New Jersey, she lives and works in Brooklyn (New York).
Katinka Bock, one of our selected artists for Women to Watch 2018, is a sculptor who seeks to establish a dialogue between her work and the space it inhabits. For her solo show at Lafayette Anticipations, she has repurposed copper tiles from the Anzeiger-Hochhaus building in Hanover, one of the city’s noteworthy buildings, which was undergoing restoration.
Immediately, Bock identified analogies between the Anzeiger-Hochhaus building and that of Lafayette Anticipations, a space for ideas and creativity that begins in the basement studios where works are produced, and rises towards the public areas. The symbolic nature of this physical ascension was not lost on the artist, whose project to fill the central exhibition tower with a suspended installation is characteristic of her heightened sensitivity to dimension, material conditions, space and time.
Katinka Bock was born in 1976 in Germany, she lives and works between Paris and Berlin.
Photos: Mickalene Thomas, November 1971, 2019, Strass et acrylique sur toile marouflée sur panneau de bois et encadrés en acajou noirci, 184.9 x 157.5 cm. Courtesy de l’artiste, de la Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris, et Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York
Katinka Bock, Rauschen, 2019, Cuivre, métal, polystyrène, fibre de verre, 9 x 4 x 2,5 m. Courtesy de l’artiste, de Lafayettes Anticipations. Photo © Pierre Antoine
