The Grand Palais (Paris, France) honours African-American artist Mickalene Thomas with All About Love: a vibrant retrospective exploring the visibility and representation of Black women while celebrating love as a force of liberation, self-affirmation, and joy.
All About Love is a monographic exhibition by the American artist Mickalene Thomas (1971, New York), recognized worldwide for her bold and multidimensional practice. Through painting, collage, photography, video and installation, Thomas reimagines classical portraiture from a uniquely queer and Black feminist perspective, exploring the visibility and representation of Black women in art, history, and popular culture.
At the heart of her work is love, presented as a force of liberation, self-assertion, and joy. Inspired by bell hooks's seminal book, All About Love: New Visions (1999), the exhibition celebrates love’s power to transform both personal and collective life.
Featuring works spanning over two decades, All About Love honors the agency, beauty, and resilience of Black women. Thomas’s subjects - friends, family, lovers, and cultural icons - are depicted with confidence, sensuality, and grace, reclaiming spaces historically denied to them. Her lush, rhinestone-studded compositions invite viewers into worlds where pleasure becomes a political act and representation takes on a radical form.
Mickalene Thomas
Grand Palais, Paris France through April 5, 2026
Grand Palais, Paris France through April 5, 2026
