Mickalene Thomas: Candy Crush Rug by Henzel Studio

Mickalene Thomas is a distinguished, multidisciplinary visual artist best known for combining art-historical, political, and pop-cultural references to create striking figurative and nonfigurative landscapes. Titled Candy Crush, the rug is adapted from a unique photo drawing collage created for specifically this project. The shape is irregular and free-form and combines visual elements that create a landscape of references from art history, popular culture and politics. Various levels of pile heights, carving and cutting techniques have been utilized to create an exquisite work of art. Each hand-made piece in the edition run is inherently unique due to the artisan practices used in the design’s 5-month making. The nature of the media at hand, a hand-knotted rug, is a natural complement to components utilized in Thomas’ immersive installations that utilize textiles, wallpaper, furniture and decor objects to reconstruct the 1970s domestic aesthetic that was formative to her visual narrat