“How to Organize a Room Around a Striking Piece of Art”

Interior: Monet's Blue Foyer, 2012 rhinestones, acrylic, oil, and enamel on wood panel

One of my favorite Brooklyn-based artists Mickalene Thomas recently had exhibition at Lehmann Maupin New York locations. The show explored interior views of personal narratives to domestic spaces. The work on view at 201 Chrystie Street gallery are inspired by various art historical sources ranging from 19th-century Hudson River School to artists like Romare Bearden, Henri Matisse, Édouard Manet and Claude Monet. Thomas specifically captured Monet’s gardens and home. She sourced images from the popular interior design anthology The Practical Encyclopedia of Good Decorating and Home Improvement. It was published in the early 1970s, a decade that has largely influenced her visual aesthetic. The anthology yielded stylish reproductions of brightly painted foyers, tiled kitchens, and wood-paneled living rooms which Thomas coupled and collaged with her own photographs, swathes of patterned textiles and blocks of pure color, and at times, glimpses of the landscape to render kaleidoscopic shifts in perspective. 

Interior: Blue Couch with Green Owl, 2012
rhinestones, acrylic, oil, and enamel on wood panel.

Thomas's exploration of interior design, art history and lifestyle in her new series paintings and installations are juxtaposed multi-layered planes almost Cubist in style, thick impasto paint for texture, dashes of her signature rhinestones on the canvas to produce a semi-three dimensional space. I was particularly drawn to this show because of the title of the exhibition and her show at the Brooklyn Museum (see before it closes January 20th!). The installations reminded me of set designs or period rooms I'd see at museums. Mickalene designed these "room" installations with collected possessions, decorated with personal emblems and props, shared books, photographs, records and textiles and best of all used original art works. I felt very connected to Mickalene through this show and wanted to experience more. I looked at this exhibit as a way of understanding complexity of personal identity and constructed environments. Our personalities and personal spaces tell a story of who we are, where we have been, and where we would like to be. They are a marker of our identities.

How to Organize a Room Around a Striking Piece of Art
Installation view

When I saw this show I immediately knew this would be me first post. Many industries, including the art world influence interior design, in turn these industries shape the individual and lifestyle. 

Art Designs Lifestyle - Derica Cole Washington