Mickalene Thomas at the Grand Palais : love, representation, and emancipation
Paris hosts a landmark retrospective of African‑American artist Mickalene Thomas, All About Love, at the Grand Palais from December 17, 2025, to April 5, 2026. This major exhibition reimagines art history by placing the beauty and power of Black women at its center.
From December 17, 2025, to April 5, 2026, the Grand Palais in Paris presents All About Love, a monographic retrospective dedicated to Mickalene Thomas (b. 1971, New York), one of the most influential contemporary artists of her generation. The exhibition spans more than two decades of multidisciplinary work — including painting, collage, photography, video, and installation — centered on the theme of love as a force of liberation, self‑affirmation, and joy.
At the heart of the show is the representation of Black women, a subject historically marginalized in classical art narratives
At the heart of the show is the representation of Black women, a subject historically marginalized in classical art narratives. Thomas’s compositions — often lavishly adorned with rhinestones and rich textures — celebrate the strength, beauty, and dignity of Black women, placing them in roles of autonomy and power and redefining traditional portraiture.
The title All About Love draws inspiration from bell hooks’s seminal essay All About Love: New Visions (1999), which frames love as an active, transformative force in personal and collective life. This philosophical underpinning resonates throughout the exhibition, inviting visitors to reconsider the connections between intimacy, identity, and social resistance.
Mickalene Thomas is the first African‑American artist to be honored with a major solo exhibition at the Grand Palais
The exhibition is also historic: Mickalene Thomas is the first African‑American artist to be honored with a major solo exhibition at the Grand Palais, an iconic institution in the history of European art. Her works are exhibited alongside references to classical masterpieces such as Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (1863) and Ingres’s La Grande Odalisque (1814), which are reinterpreted through a contemporary lens that empowers Black women as central figures in cultural narratives.
Thomas herself emphasized the importance of this milestone: “I am deeply humbled and profoundly honored to present my work at the Grand Palais — an institution that holds such an important place in the history of art. To stand here as a Black queer woman, and to share All About Love in this space, is both a personal and collective moment of triumph. This exhibition is a testament to the power of representation, resilience, and love.”
The Paris retrospective is one of the most ambitious presentations of Thomas’s work in the city, following acclaimed exhibitions at The Broad (Los Angeles), the Barnes Foundation (Philadelphia), Hayward Gallery (London), and Les Abattoirs (Toulouse). It underscores the growing global impact of her work and its contribution to current conversations about representation, diversity, and narrative authority in the arts.
By placing Black bodies at the center of art history, All About Love challenges traditional canons and highlights the transformative power of art in shaping cultural narratives.
