Mickalene Thomas' All About Love is for you, Black women

when an art exhibit becomes a transformative experience

Mickalene Thomas “All About Love” photo by monique judge

“Universe really said you need to be seen and let yourself be seen.”

My sister friend and creative partner in crime,

Amber

, said this to me in a text the other day, and I felt it in my soul.

We spent Tuesday afternoon together, walking around the Mickalene Thomas exhibit, “All About Love,” at The Broad in downtown Los Angeles, and to call it a transformative experience would be an understatement.

We walked around the exhibit for three hours, and it still didn’t feel like enough. Sadly, the exhibition ended Sunday, and I did not get a chance to go back again.

It moves to the east coast in October, and I am already making plans to go see it again in Philadelphia, where it will be hosted by the Barnes.

I walked into the exhibit and immediately felt overwhelmed.

It wasn’t the kind of overwhelmed that makes you anxious; it was the kind of overwhelmed you feel when you discover something that speaks to your soul, something that sinks so deeply inside of you, it plants a seed and takes root.

I felt like something was happening inside of me as I moved from room to room, and I found myself incapable of putting what I was feeling into words.

I kept repeatedly saying to Amber, “I am overwhelmed,” and because she is a kindred creative spirit, she knew exactly what I was feeling. She felt it too.

it wasn’t until just now that I noticed the way Amber and I are reflected in the mirrors of this piece

This exhibit is a love letter to Black women. It’s a love letter to the creator herself. It's a love letter to every Black woman who dreams in colors that don't have names yet; composes music on a typewriter; and dances to the sound of quarters dropping on the floor.

It may not make sense to other people at first, but it doesn't matter because it's your vision, and you get to express it in whatever way you can imagine.

There was so much to see, and then you had to look at it again because something you saw in one room could show up again in another form two rooms later.

There were moments when I had to catch my breath, gather my thoughts, and let my emotions take over.

It felt like artistic freedom. It was liberating.

Mickalene Thomas is a creator, baby

Artist is too small of a word to describe Mickalene Thomas. She is a mover and a shaker. She is a disruptor in the best way possible.

She’s a painter. She’s a photographer. She’s a sculptor. She’s a videographer. She’s a printmaker. She’s a collage artist. She does installation art.

The “All About Love” exhibit is a three-dimensional, mixed media masterpiece, and the expressions within it are both inspirational and aspirational.

There were pieces that combined painting with pieces of a photograph, rhinestones, and fabric, and mirrors, and every composition made beautiful and perfect sense.

All of the subjects are Black women, and every part of us is celebrated — out bodies, our hair, our music, the books we read, our politics, and our love.

A lot of the women featured are Thomas’ muses — friends, former lovers, and other women she knows.

Thomas is also a subject in her work, and that's memoir, baby.

One of my favorite pieces in the exhibit, and a photograph does not do it justice

I was struck by one piece in particular. It was comprised of several different floor tiles, plants, sculptures, a poster, and a bulletin board collage full of notes, letters, photographs, and words.

It was like an altar to the artist herself, and I came away from it wanting to create a similar space for myself in my own home.

It was like a sneak peek into her brain, and I wanted to memorize it. I took 24 different photos and videos of it because it spoke to me rather loudly.

There are a number of spaces within the exhibit where you are actually able to sit inside the art. One of them is pictured below.

This video collage was so dope, and it was in the room with the furniture installation you could sit in. We stayed in this room for a long time because there was so much to see.

After spending three hours walking around the exhibit, we left The Broad and had lunch on the shaded patio at Vespaio, where we enjoyed focaccia, bruschetta and prosciutto, and baby spinach salads with pear, crumbled bacon and blue cheese.

We sipped sparkling Evian and discussed what we had just witnessed.

“I was thinking, I still don’t have words to express that genius,” Amber said to me.

“I want to screenshot every thought in my brain,” she added.

I felt and still feel the same way. It’s still moving me.