CULTURE FILES // Love Wins

‘All About Love’

Notes on Mickalene Thomas at the Barnes Foundation

by Ginger Rudolph

EXCERPT //

Mickalene Thomas’ 2024 solo show “All About Love” at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia is a vibrant celebration of Black womanhood and feminism that explores themes of beauty, power, love, and sensuality in the context of richly designed living spaces that evoke Black homes and intimacy.

The show’s name is an homage to bell hooks’ seminal book, All About Love, a thirteen-chapter search to recapture the unconditional love of childhood in a world that has abandoned it.

In the first chapter, hooks considers a woman “rigorously engaged in a philosophical undertaking wherein she is endeavoring to understand the metaphysical meaning of love in everyday life.” How do we define love, hook asks? //

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6.3, Culture FilesHeather BlakesleeNovember 11, 2024Excerpt, Ginger Rudolph