Press Release 2011/1/28

Mickalene Thomas--Mama Bush: One of a Kind Two
Dates: February 17 (Thurs.) – June 12 (Sun.), 2011 Place: Gallery I, Hara Museum (Tokyo)
Also on view: Be Alive! ―Selections from the Hara Museum Collection[Image 1]
Mickalene Thomas,
Mama Bush: One of a Kind Two, 2009

The Hara Museum of Contemporary Art is pleased to announce a special project entitled Mickalene
Thomas--Mama Bush: One of a Kind Two, to be carried out by the artist Mickalene Thomas inGallery I of the museum.
Based in New York, Mickalene Thomas (born in 1971) has become widely known for her portrait
paintings done in vivid colors and rhinestones. For 10 months, from March 2010, work that she did
for The Museum of Modern Art, New York was installed in a show window on 53rd Street, propelling
her into the limelight. Thomas received a B.F.A. from the Pratt Institute in 2000 and an M.F.A. fromthe Yale University School of Art in 2002. Her present work consists of photographs, collages,videos and large-scale paintings. African-American women appear as models in her works, which arestrongly informed by the artist’s own identity as an African-American. In these works, boldlyrendered women strike poses that are at once dignified and provocative, and are highly suggestive of
the Blaxploitation imagery that was popular in America in the 1970s.
This project was first conceived of after the museum acquired the painting Mama Bush: One of a Kind
Two, which features the artist’s mother as the model. During the project, a part of the stage setting in
her New York studio will be reproduced as an installation, allowing viewers to understand the artist’s
approach to her subject matter and her creative process. The large-format painting, whose composition
is reminiscent of the famous painting by Ingres, Odalisque, shows a nude woman, who is Sandra, theartist’s own mother and “No. 1 muse.” By painting her mother, the artist believed she might close thegap that had grown between mother and daughter. Thus was born this and other paintings with hermother as the model. The group of paintings selected for this project, including work paired withDVD imagery, may be considered a starting point for an artist whose work addresses such variedissues as race and gender.
The artist is scheduled to come to Japan for this project and will give lectures in association withBlack History Month (note), an event organized by the U.S. Embassy, Tokyo. At the Hara Museum(Tokyo), she is scheduled to give a talk on Thursday, February 17. The artist’s work will also befeatured at the highly renowned contemporary art fair G Tokyo 2011 which will be held fromSaturday, February 19.
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Note: Black History Month is a remembrance of important people and events in the history of theAfrican diaspora. Since 1976, it is celebrated annually in the United States of America and Canada inFebruary and the United Kingdom in the month of October. In the U.S., numerous governmental aswell as private institutions take the opportunity to organize seminars and events on ethnic diversity
and its promotion through Black History Month.
Exhibition Data
Title: Mickalene Thomas--Mama Bush: One of a Kind Two
Dates: February 17 (Thurs.) – June 12 (Sun.), 2011
*Also on view: Be Alive! ―Selections from the Hara Museum Collection
Organized by: Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Hara Museum FundSpecial grant by: U.S. Embassy, Tokyo
Cooperation provided by: Lehmann Maupin Gallery, Gallery Koyanagi
Place: Gallery I, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art
4-7-25, Kitashinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 140-0001
Tel: 03-3445-0651 Fax: 03-3473-0104 E-mail: info@haramuseum.or.jp
Website http://www.haramuseum.or.jp Mobile site http://mobile.haramuseum.or.jp
http://www.art-it.asia/u/HaraMuseum/ (blog)
Hours: 11:00 am – 5:00 pm, Wednesdays (except May 4) until 8:00 pm*Last entry 30 min. before closing.
Closed: Mondays (open on March 21) and March 22
Admission: General 1,000 yen. Students 700 yen (high school and university) or 500 yen(elementary and junior high). Free for Hara Museum members and students through high school
every Saturday during the school term. 100 yen discount per person for groups of 20 or more.
Directions: 5 min. by taxi or 15 min. on foot from JR Shinagawa Station (Takanawa exit); or fromthe same station take the No.96 bus, get off at the first stop (Gotenyama), and walk 3 min./ The
BloomBUS! free shuttle bus service is available between Shinagawa Station (Takanawa exit) and theHara Museum every Sunday until June 12, 2011 (Sponsored by: Bloomberg L.P./ Artist: YasuhiroSuzuki). Please check the Hara Museum website for further details.
Related Event: Artist Talk: Mickalene ThomasFebruary 17 (Thurs.), 2011 6:30 – 8:00 pm (door opens at 6:00 pm)
Organized by: Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, U.S. Embassy, Tokyo
Place: The Hall at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art*Free of charge. The talk will be given in English with Japanese interpretation.
Reservation is required (accepted from Tuesday, February 1).
Tel: 03-3445-0669 E-mail: info@haramuseum.or.jp
Guests will be able to enjoy the collection exhibition as well as the Mickalene Thomas project.
Featured works
Mama Bush: One of a Kind Two (2009), 274.3 x 365.8 x 5.1cm, rhinestones, acrylic and enamelon panel
Ain’t I a Woman (Sandra) (2009) [painting (rhinestones, acrylic and enamel on panel/ size: 91.4 x
71.1 cm), monitor (45.7 x 61 x 13.5cm) and DVD]
Still Life with Flowers on Flower (2009), 152.4 x 121.9 cm, rhinestones, acrylic and enamel on panel*In addition to the above-mentioned paintings, a number of photographic images will be included.

Hara Museum of Contemporary Art 2011/1/28
2/3【Mickalene Thomas】

Born in 1971, Thomas graduated from Pratt Institute in 2000 with a B.F.A. in painting and from Yale
University School of Art in 2002 with an M.F.A. in painting. From 2002 to 2003, she participated inthe residence program at The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. In 2010, she was commissionedby The Museum of Modern Art, New York to make work for their show window on 53rd Street.
Public collections include Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Whitney Museum ofAmerican Art, Brooklyn Museum, New York, National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. andothers.
Artist website: http://mickalenethomas.com/Gallery website: http://www.lehmannmaupin.com/#/artists/mickalene-thomas/【Image for Publication】 Mickalene Thomas, Mama Bush: One of a Kind Two, 2009
*Please include the above credit upon publication. Please do not trim or alter the images.
Superimposition of text over images is also prohibited.
【Exhibitions in 2011】
January 14 (Fri.) – June 12 (Sun.) Be Alive! ―Selections from the Hara Museum Collection
Featured artists: Noe Aoki, Nobuyoshi Araki, Zhang Huan, Izumi Kato, William Kentridge, YoshitomoNara, Kohei Nawa, Pipilotti Rist, Tabaimo, Kouichi Tabata, Mickalene Thomas, Miwa Yanagi, and others.

June 25 (Sat.) – August 28 (Sun.) Ming Wong (tentative title)
September 10 (Sat.) – November 27 (Sun.) Art Scope 2009-2011 (tentative title)
Featured artists: Meiro Koizumi, Hiroe Saeki, Eva Berendes, Jan Scharrelmann*Mickalene Thomas, Ming Wong and artists participating in Art Scope will come to the HaraMuseum. Please contact us for details or to arrange an appointment.
For publicity material, please contact: Hara Museum of Contemporary Art (Nakamura)
Tel: +81-3-3280-0679 Fax: +81-3-5791-7630 E-mail: press@haramuseum.or.jp*Do not include the above details as contact information in the article for publication.
*Click http://www.art-it.asia/u/HaraMuseum/ to see the Hara Museum BLOG!
*Hara Museum is now participating in the iPhone application museum discount coupon system MuPon (by Tokyo Art Beat).

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