Glamorous, dazzling and flashing with glittery rhinestones, Thomas’s work celebrates female beauty and power. Permeated by the artist’s nostalgia for the 1970’s the women depicted in her paintings recall the uncomplicated self assuredness of a gone-by era, and yet radiate a contemporary freshness and straightforward grandeur. In this body of work, titled  "Brawlin Spitfire Wrestler's , Thomas depicts female wrestlers clad in animal print leotards and jeweled jerseys. Intertwined in striking poses of physical engagement, these wrestlers shift between aggression and affection, power and submission; they explode the picture frame into a shimmering confusion of pattern, fabric and bodies.

Mickalene Thomas received her MFA from Yale University in 2002. She was invited for residencies at the Studio Museum in Harlem, NY, and to Yale Norfolk Summer of Music and Art, Norfolk, CT. 

 

Mickelaine Thomas Brawlin' Spitfire Wrestlers 2007

Edition 40 Hand signed and numbered, resin, paint, and Svoravski Crystals 

14 x 9.75, 10 inches 36 x 24.8 x 25 cm 

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Mickelaine Thomas Brawlin' Spitfire Wrestlers 2 2008

Edition 40 Hand signed and numbered, resin, paint, and Svoravski Crystals 

14 x 9.75, 10 inches 36 x 24.8 x 25 cm

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Mickelaine Thomas Bronze Brawlin' Spitfire Wrestlers 2008

Edition 8  Hand signed and numbered, resin, paint, and Svoravski Crystals 

14 x 9.75, 10 inches 36 x 24.8 x 25 cm