faux real – Lobby installation by Mickalene Thomas
September 17, 2013 – August 31, 2014
Organized by the Norton Museum of Art

The third site specific artwork for the Norton Museum lobby was created by Mickalene Thomas (b.1971, Camden, New Jersey). She is best known for her elaborate figurative paintings which expand ideas of beauty through compositions inspired by sources as varied as popular culture, 19th century French painting, and the collages of Romare Bearden. Following a residency at Monet’s home and garden in Giverny, she has continued to examine the elements and complexity of both domestic interiors and landscape through fractured perspectives signaled by patterning and seductive, decorative materials. Thomas has consistently worked with deconstructing and reassembling photographic images in her own collages which often serve as reference for her paintings. This will be the first mural-sized artwork Thomas has created outside of New York.