Mickalene Thomas (born January 28, 1971, Camden, New Jersey, U.S.) is an American mixed-media artist best known for portraits of Black women that are often made from nontraditional media, such as rhinestones, glitter, and yarn. She also works in collage, video, sculpture, and installations. Thelma Golden—the director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, where Thomas had a residency (2002–03)—described Thomas’s work to ARTnews in 2011: “She simultaneously reinvents and pays tribute to centuries of artistic depictions of women as she draws on an astonishing and inspired range of esthetic, historical, and social references. Her work is viciously smart, audaciously sexy, and incredibly beautiful to look at.”