CHICAGO: Mickalene Thomas

Mickalene Thomas's mother's lipsticks, 2014, cast bronze. Image via kavigupta.com.

I was born to do great things

September 19 – November 15, 2014

KAVI GUPTA CHICAGO

835 West Washington Boulevard

Chicago, IL

From kavigupta.com:

"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness..." - John Keats

Kavi Gupta CHICAGO | BERLIN is proud to announce its first solo exhibition with New York based artist Mickalene Thomas, entitled I was born to do great things. 

  

I was born to do great things are the quoted words of Sandra Bush, Mickalene Thomas's late mother, a statement that speaks for both the dynamic life that she lived as well as her influence and inspiration on Thomas's artistic practice as her longtime muse. Bush has been prominent as a subject in Thomas's works over the past 14 years, inspiring her examinations of identity and style through her magnetic personality and undeniable presence. This presentation of new work explores the personal story of the woman behind the inspiration. This is a story in celebration of womanhood, motherhood, and the power of art as a totem for personal memory, a story in celebration of Sandra.

Exhibit Link

GENESIS: Aretha Louise Franklin / March 25, 1942

PORTRAIT BY ARTIS LANE 

"She'll always be dangerous."

- Marvin Gaye

MUSE: Erica Abi Wright (born February 26, 1971)

Erykah Badu photographed by Nabil Elderkin for Oyster magazine.

"I'm sure a lot of things I've done have been misunderstood, but I don't see it that way, because the whole purpose of art is to create dialogue. If you create the dialogue, whether it's pro-something or against it, it doesn't really make a difference as long as it gets people thinking and talking and wanting to create their own pieces of art, and wanting to protect or stand against it. Art cannot be censored in any way. So, I don't think of it in terms of being misunderstood, I think of it in terms of creating dialogue, and if does that, then we're doing our job as artists. I think art has many layers; you can pull back one or pull back many."

--Erykah Badu

MUSE: Jody Watley (born January 30, 1959)

Photograph by Victoria Pearson Cameron, 1987.

The beat don't stop for this singer's timeless appeal

BlackArtistNews | January 30, 2012

It all begins with you: In a cookie-cutter world, it takes raw talent to cultivate the confidence required to live by one's wits. Workin' on a groove: Gumption has made Jody Watley an unsung pop icon -- vaingloriously sexy, always with the times, never of the times and oftentimes ahead of them. Most of all: She's filled the gap between black and post-black, urban and urbane, modern and contemporary. Timeless.

Photograph by Herb Ritts for GAP, 1989.

  

Photograph by Andrea Blanch for Harper's Bazaar, 1991.

Photograph by Lance Staedler.

Illustration by Sally Simonetti for Jody Watley's Larger Than Life Tour book, 1989.

Jody Watley online

View artwork inspired by Jody Watley

HOT SHOT: Naomi Campbell by Herb Ritts

Previously unpublished photo of supermodel Naomi Campbell from the archives of Herb Ritts.

From Nowness.com:

With an instinctive California-bred approach to light, expansive use of natural landscape and sculptural eye, Ritts set the tone for more than two decades of fashion, celebrity and art photography. “I think he had an extraordinary sense of classicism that you don’t often see,” says Ivan Shaw, Photography Director at American Vogue. “At the same time he brought a modernity to it.” With an upcoming exhibition of Ritts’s work at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the release of a new book, his continuing influence on a new generation of photographers is ensured. “People will remember his photography for his eye, his image, for his graphics,” says Charles Churchward, a close friend and former Design Director at Vogue. “It will come back in a strong way and be very influential.”

Source 

MUSE: Lisa Bonet (born November 16, 1967)

Lisa Bonet photographed by Lance Staedler. 

Thursday's child has far to go before she's forgotten

BlackArtistNews | November 16, 2011

Lisa Bonet may have starred on the hit TV sitcom The Cosby Show but in real life she never got with the program. Her personal and professional choices made it very clear that she was not Cosby's kid.  And it was that uncompromising ability to lead an authentic life that made her so cool. Yeah, some wrote her off as a piece of work but Lisa Bonet was actually a beautiful, unapologetic work in progress.

MUSE: Diana Ross (born March 26, 1944)

Photograph: Skrebneski

Diana Ross is celebrated worldwide for her magnetic talent and presence. The influence of the Motown recording legend permeates the furthest reaches of popular culture -- her  distinct elegance and style are referenced by creative people from singers to music producers, dj's to drag queens, fashion designers to doll manufacturers, makeup artists to photographers and of course visual artists.  With this in mind, BlackArtistNews curated a collection of inspired imagery by visual artists which -- like Miss Ross -- expands racial, gender, geographic and generational boundaries: