Keely Orgeman, the Seymour H. Knox, Jr., Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, leads a discussion of Liz with Hoops (2023), the first painting by Mickalene Thomas, M.F.A. 2002, to enter the Yale University Art Gallery’s collection. This recently acquired work is a striking portrait of a professional model named Liz, posing against fragments of faux-wood paneling, a plant, and abstract patterns. Partially covered in sparkling rhinestones, Liz with Hoops captures the spirit of a collage in a painting and, in fact, is based on a collage that Thomas made after her own photograph of Liz from 2013. In addition to Thomas’s creative process—in this case, spanning a decade—the talk reflects on how the portrait relates to the themes of Black identity and domestic interiors addressed in the Gallery’s 2023–24 exhibition Mickalene Thomas / Portrait of an Unlikely Space.

Meet by the central column in the Gallery lobby. Space is limited.