Show Notes
Mickalene Thomas is a globally celebrated multidisciplinary artist renowned for her dazzling, rhinestone-studded portraits that boldly reimagine the representation of Black women in contemporary art. Working across painting, photography, collage, video, and installation, Thomas creates vibrant, layered compositions that explore complex themes of race, gender, identity, sexuality, and beauty. Her visual language draws from 1970s aesthetics, African textiles, domestic spaces, personal histories, and iconic moments in art history. By referencing figures like Manet, Matisse, and Romare Bearden, she both honors and disrupts the Eurocentric art canon—placing empowered images of Black women at the center. Her work unapologetically challenges traditional beauty standards and amplifies narratives often excluded from mainstream art spaces. Thomas’s pieces are part of permanent collections at major institutions including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Smithsonian, solidifying her role as a leading figure in contemporary visual culture. Beyond her studio practice, Thomas is a visionary curator, mentor, and educator. She actively supports emerging artists—especially women, LGBTQ+ creatives, and artists of color—through mentorship, community engagement, and inclusive curatorial work. She is also a Tony-nominated co-producer, further demonstrating the reach of her creativity across disciplines. In 2023, Thomas made history as the first Black queer femme artist to have a scholarship endowed in her name at Yale University, her alma mater. This milestone reflects her commitment to fostering access and equity in the arts for future generations. Her influence only deepened in 2025 — a landmark year— in which she was named one of TIME100’s Most Influential People, became the first African-American artist to be honored with a major solo show at the Grand Palais in Paris, and was the Keynote Speaker at Rutgers University-Camden’s Commencement. She has received prestigious accolades, including the Creative Capital Award, the Hirshhorn Museum’s National Arts Award, the Queens Museum Honoree distinction, and the Joan Shepp Woman of Substance & Style honor. She was named Honorary Co-Chair of the Dance Theatre of Harlem and was recognized at the NYC Health + Hospitals/South Brooklyn Health 150th Anniversary Gala for her monumental mosaic “Freesia on My Mind: The Beauty of Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” on permanent display at the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital in Brooklyn. Mickalene Thomas continues to break boundaries and elevate underrepresented voices through her bold visual storytelling, cultural leadership, and unwavering commitment to justice and representation. Her work not only transforms how we see beauty and identity—it also redefines who gets to be seen, celebrated, and remembered in the world of art and beyond.
Photo credit: © Chad Kirkland, 2019
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Ep.282 Jeanne Barral is a curator at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, in Paris, France. She has curated several exhibitions, such as Fabrice Hyber's "La Vallée" at the Fondation Cartier in 2022 and in 2025 at the PSA in Shanghai, and « The Harvest Season » in 2026 in the new building of the Fondation in Paris. Prior to that, as an artist liaison at gallery Mennour in Paris, she has organized solo shows of Ann Veronica Janssens, Huang Yong Ping, Petrit Halilaj, and Bertrand Lavier, while while fostering their artistic development.
Ep. 281 Anina Major (b. 1981, Nassau, Bahamas; lives and works in Upstate New York) holds an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design. She is the recipient of numerous awards and residencies, including being a 2026 USA Fellow, finalist in the 2025 Loewe Craft Prize, winner of The Armory Show Pommery Prize 2024, The Future Perfect Prize 2024, the 2023 Joan Mitchell Fellowship and an artist residency at EKWC, the European Ceramic Workcentre. Major's work has been exhibited throughout The Bahamas, Europe, and the United States, and is on permanent display at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC. Her work is held in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of The Bahamas; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Carnegie Museum of Art; the RISD Museum; Pérez Art Museum Miami; and the Detroit Institute of Arts, among others. Photo by Melissa Alcena
Ep.280 Jiab Prachakul (b. 1979) is a figurative painter who lives and works in Vannes, Brittany, France. Known for her luminous autobiographical paintings, Prachakul portrays her community and surroundings in quiet scenes shaped by close observation and restraint. Prachakul was born and raised in Nakhon Phanom, a small town in northeast Thailand. She studied film and journalism at Thammasat University in Bangkok and worked as a casting coordinator for Big Blue Production, where she spent her time observing people and discovering talent. In 2007, she moved to London and taught herself to paint after seeing an exhibition of David Hockney’s work at the National Portrait Gallery. She subsequently lived in Berlin, where she met many of the figures who populate her paintings. There, she turned her focus to representing the Asian diaspora, seeking to amend a lack in the Western canon. In 2020, Prachakul won the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery, London. She has had solo exhibitions at The Contemporary Austin (2025), Timothy Taylor, New York (2023), and Friends Indeed Gallery, San Francisco (2023, 2021); and her work belongs in the collections of the Roberts Institute of Art, London; the Aïshti Foundation, Beirut; Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
Ep.279 Kyla McMillan is the Director of The Armory Show. McMillan has a wide range of experience in the art world, having experience as an art dealer, gallerist, and consultant. In 2021, she founded Saint George Projects, an itinerant gallery and consultancy, organizing exhibitions and programming in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Paris, Kingston, Jamaica, and Johannesburg. Prior to founding Saint George Projects, she was a director at David Zwirner, New York and Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York where she focused on artist management and sales.