
The Yale University Art Gallery is pleased to present Mickalene Thomas / Portrait of an Unlikely Space, on view from September 8, 2023, through January 7, 2024. Co-organized by the renowned artist Mickalene Thomas (born 1971, M.F.A. 2002) and Keely Orgeman, the Gallery’s Seymour H. Knox, Jr., Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, the project is the first historical-contemporary exhibition of its kind, bringing together a group of small-scale portraits—from miniatures and daguerreotypes to silhouettes on paper and engravings in books—of African American women, men, and children from the pre-Emancipation era. These are placed alongside works in a wide range of media by contemporary artists, including Thomas, who are engaged with similarly intimate subject matter.