Mickalene Thomas (b. 1971, Camden, NJ) lives and works in Brooklyn. She earned her BFA in painting at Pratt Institute in 2000 and her MFA at the Yale University School of Art in 2002. Thomas has participated in residencies at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, 2000–2003; the Versailles Foundation Munn Artists Program, Giverny, France, 2011; and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Madison, 2013. Thomas’s work is part of many prominent public collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; The International Center of Photography, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Art Institute of Chicago; and Hara Museum ARC, Gunma, Japan, among others.