Thomas explores notions of beauty in relation to African American women with her photographs, collages, and paintings

Paradis' 2009 by Juergen Teller C-print, 70 x 50 inches Image courtesy the Lehmann Maupin Gallery

This opening, needless to say will be a seeeeeerious Fashion Week truck stop

Ain't I a woman (Fran), 2009 DVD, rhinestone and acrylic on panel Edition of 3 Courtesy of the Artist and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York.

Last night was the opening of Mickalene Thomas' first New York solo show. This was at Lehmann Maupin.

Cause & Effect, 2007, acrylic, stainless steel, and aluminum, 11' 10 3/4" x 33' 4" x 38' 4".

Back in NY I wandered through the Do-Ho Suh at Lehmann Maupin's 26th Street gallery. There was something about this show that restored my faith in Manhattan and the life lived in New York. It is so great to walk through the monumental and inhuman scale of the city to find yourself in a vast room with Do-Ho Suh's piece "Cause And Effect" confronting you. This cyclone of tiny orange/yellow acrylic figures spiraling up from one lone figure at the base is such a great metaphor. Its creation is the result of a tremendous amount of concentrated effort on the part of one individual. The piece is the visual expression of the idea of human interaction and interdependence and it also tells you something about the virulence of great ideas. I'm glad I saw this piece and I left convinced that Do-Ho Suh is one of the greats of our current zeitgeist. I also left the show inspired to be both more rigorous and more freewheeling in all my future work.

Do-Ho Suh
Lehmann Maupin
540 West 26th Street
November 3–December 22