The rug RACQUEL COME TO ME 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 6-month making.‎

RACQUEL COME TO ME, 2019
Edition of 10 + 1 AP
Numbered and accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity
Hand knotted, Tibetan weave
Wool, Lyocell, Linen & Silk
High & Low Cut

Thomas’ work stems from her long study of art history and classical genres of portraiture, landscape, and still life.‎ Inspired by various sources that range from the 19th century Hudson river school to Édouard Manet, Alice Neel, and Romare Bearden, she has created a true signature style and continues to explore notions of beauty from a contemporary perspective infused with the more recent influences of popular culture and pop art, redefining contemporary ideas of portraiture.‎ In combining traditional genres with African American female subjects, Thomas makes a case for opening up the conventional parameters of art history and culture.‎

Thomas’s layered process of fragmentation, in which she begins with a photographic portrait and moves to collage and then on to painting, is the result of discreet borrowings from our twenty-first century language of mass culture.‎ Strategically placed objects in her photographs come into sharper relief during the collage stage as deliberately exposed tape and abrupt lines between forms frame our perspective, focusing us on the distinct cultural languages that she puts on view.‎ Mickalene Thomas first rug for Henzel Studio, titled Candy Crush, was unveiled at Barneys NewYork Madison Avenue during Frieze Art Fair in 2014.‎

Henzel Studio Collaborations, is an exclusive collection of limited edition art rugs realized in close collaboration with fine artists operating at the forefront of contemporary culture.‎

Featuring: ASSUME VIVID ASTRO FOCUS, SCOTT CAMPBELL, LEO GABIN, NAN GOLDIN, ROBERT KNOKE, HELMUT LANG, LINDER, MARILYN MINTER, RICHARD PHILLIPS, JACK PIERSON, RICHARD PRINCE, ANSELM REYLE, JUERGEN TELLER, MICKALENE THOMAS, OLAF BREUNING and BJARNE MELGAARD.‎

Henzel Studio Collaborations was conceived with no regard to the past state of art and design.‎ Contrary to common associations to rugs — an object that inherently possesses a strong sense of history and references to defined artistic and aesthetic movements — the purpose of this project is to provide a new and extraordinary channel for art to be made available through an alternate medium.‎ Via a curated lens, a new context is shaped to reflect diverse dynamics of contemporary art and design.‎ Each volume will represent a different visual portrayal that transcends temporal or popular factors in this ongoing initiative.‎

The inclusion of the participating artists in this first volume was, in part, inspired by Calle Henzel’s independent voice and stature in the world of art and design.‎ Each artist was invited and selected to synergize with the next, gravitating toward artists that have each established their own rules in the art world, either by practice or by status.‎ The result is a curation that, when combined, offers an eclectic, aesthetically broad and authentic grouping, with an overall common denominator of openness to the crossdisciplinary practice at hand, which can also be traced in the artists’ body of work.‎

The artists are all groundbreaking and leading forces within their respective fields and media, ranging from sculpture, drawing, collage, photography, installations, reliefs and video art.‎ Their mark has not only been honored and highlighted at leading galleries and institutions worldwide, but also widely documented and manifested as a mirror of cultural movements.‎