Lehmann Maupin Gallery to Participate in ADAA Art Show 2012, 3/7-11

Lehmann Maupin Gallery announces its participation in The Art Show 2012, taking place March 7-11, 2012 at the Park Avenue Armory, Booth D7. This year, the gallery's presentation will follow the theme "Artist as Author" and feature work by Billy Childish, Klara Kristalova, and Mickalene Thomas, highlighting each artist's approach to narrative in their work. Visit www.lehmannmaupin.com for more information.

Billy Childish was born in Chatham, Kent in 1959. After leaving secondary school at age 16 he worked at the Naval Dockyard in Chatham as an apprentice stonemason. Initially denied an interview to the local art school, he produced hundreds of drawings that gained him entry to St. Martin's School of Art. Childish's defiance to authority led to his eventual expulsion from art school in 1981. Childish then embarked on an artistic odyssey exploring a broad range of worldly themes including war, history, social protest, as well his own experiences of alcoholism, and the sexual abuse he suffered as a child. Childish has written and published over forty volumes of confessional poetry, recording over one hundred LPs, and painting several hundred works.

Born in 1967 in Czechoslovakia, Klara Kristalova draws inspiration from music, current events, and her daily surroundings to create figurative ceramic works that often mirror imagery from myths and old folk tales, and address themes surrounding oppression, anxiety and the sub-conscious. Exuding both an innocence and horror, Kristalova's sculptures portray adolescent girls and boys, often marked with exaggerated features or in the midst of transformation.

Mickalene Thomas was born in 1971 in Camden, New Jersey. The New York-based artist is known for her elaborate paintings adorned with rhinestones, enamel and colorful acrylics. Her depictions of African American women explore notions of black female celebrity and identity while romanticizing ideas of femininity and power. Reminiscent of 70s style Blaxploitation, the subjects in Thomas’ paintings radiate sexuality. Women in provocative poses sprawl across the picture plane and are surrounded by kitschy decorative patterns inspired by her childhood. Mickalene Thomas earned her BFA in painting at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY in 2000 and a MFA at the Yale University School of Art, New Haven CT, in 2002. In 2003, the artist participated in a residency at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY and in 2010, a residency at the Versailles Munn Artists Program at Giverny, France, among others. In April 2012, the Santa Monica Museum of Art will present Mickalene Thomas: Origin of the Universe.