Mickalene Thomas Draws Us Into Her Living Rooms At IFPDA Print Fair’s Buzzy Opening

Travel back to the everyday 1970s with Mickalene Thomas, exploring quintessential living rooms where a lemon yellow sofa and verdant plants punch up the linoleum flooring, fabricated paneling, upholstery, and wallpaper. The New York-based multidisciplinary artist – known for her rhinestone-encrusted paintings of domestic interiors and portraits of Black women subverting normative ideals of beauty, race, and gender – collaborated with Two Palms Press to create paper-pulp sculpture, collages, silkscreens, and three-dimensional cast paper works to convey the feelings emanating from her bespoke living spaces. Plants, lamps, carpeting, books, and furniture made of paper layer the verisimilitude of the quotidian and the imagined. Thomas embraces the fungibility of innovating printmaking techniques to challenge our perception of reality, memory, nostalgia, and social mores.

l’espace entre les deux (2025), a site-specific immersive installation at the Park Avenue Armory, welcomes art lovers to the International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) Print Fair, open to the public until Sunday. Founded in 1987 as the preeminent international membership organization for galleries, dealers, and publishers specializing in prints and editions, the IFPDA Print Fair is the longest-running and largest international art fair dedicated to prints and editions.

“In art, we are often looking and draw inspiration to what is already being accomplished in nature,” Thomas said. “Trees, the origin of paper, exist three-dimensional — so why can’t the creations we make out of paper mimic or replicate that same depth and dimensionality?”

Thomas’ project was commissioned by the IFPDA and organized by Independent curator and publisher Sharon Coplan, with production assistance by Two Palms and major support provided by the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, founded by the West Coast businessman and philanthropist who is regarded as North America’s largest print collector. Schnitzer often loans pieces of his private art collection including sculptures, paintings, glass and mixed media work, to museums and institutions around the world, helping others to engage with a wide array of art.

Thomas was actively interacting with her space and the flow of more than 5,000 onlookers who packed the bustling VIP Preview on Thursday. The line to enter snaked around the block Thursday evening, as passers-by observed the demand by curators, collectors, artists, and industry experts for an accessible art form, prints and multiples.

“The International Fine Print Dealers Association hosts the most important print fair in the world. As a major supporter, I am very excited and honored to sponsor a groundbreaking installation piece by internationally recognized artist Mickalene Thomas,” said Schnitzer, whose family foundation has organized more than 180 exhibitions and loaned thousands of works to more than 120 museums. “I am fortunate to have a number of her works in our collection, which have toured nationally. Mickalene is a true pioneer of the medium, and her work has continually redefined the landscape of contemporary prints. We are thrilled to showcase her extraordinary talent at the Park Avenue Armory.”

Highlights of this year’s fair include a focus on leading contemporary artists, with blockbuster booths like Hauser & Wirth’s debut of new prints by Nicole Eisenman, Rashid Johnson, and Amy Sherald, along with a curation of historical masterworks by Louise Bourgeois, Philip Guston, Eva Hesse, Allan Kaprow, Dieter Roth, and Jack Whitten. David Zwirner is presenting a new edition by Gerhard Richter and new lithographs by Josh Smith, alongside historic prints and editions by Ruth Asawa, Yayoi Kusama, Donald Judd, and Raymond Pettibon.

“We are thrilled to welcome a global array of collectors, museum curators, and newcomers alike to this year’s IFPDA Print Fair as we showcase the remarkable breadth of printmaking throughout history,” said Anders Bergstrom, chairman of the IFPDA Print Fair Committee. “The fair offers exceptional works from top galleries and publishers worldwide while also highlighting the enduring vitality and innovation within the print medium. As we celebrate another year, we remain committed to fostering a deeper appreciation for prints and their unique contribution to the art world.”