Mickalene Thomas is one of contemporary art’s most recognisable and influential names. The 53 year-old American artist has been concerned with the empowerment and reclamation of the image of Black women, known for her large-scale, dazzling works, ranging from monunemtal paintings, collages and photographs to installations and films. Her work centres around her circle of family and friends but speaks to universal themes of love, beauty and acceptance. Those themes will be the focus of the artist’s first solo exhibition at a British public gallery, All About Love, which opens at the Hayward Gallery on February 11 and runs to May 5. While we wait for the exhibition to open, this 2007 Thomas work is playing on our mind. Typical of Thomas’ bold and unabashed reclamation of the image of African American women, this painting, using Thomas’ trademark materials of acrylic, enamel and rhinestone on wood, portrays a Black female figure reclining and resplendent. A play on the trope throughout the history of painting of portraits of passive, objectified white European women nudes painted by and for white European male viewers, Thomas creates a fabulous, luxuriant space for Black women to be seen and be at ease.

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