This is Louis Fratino’s painting The Beautiful Summer (2023). The Beautiful Summer presents two subjects, one floating in the river and another sitting on the bank. The dappled light, overwhelming green tones, and serene expressions on our subjects’ faces allows us to feel calm. 

Some of the only times that I can feel truly content with life is on a warm day by a body of water. The spread of objects—clothes, polaroids, and other personal affects brings us into an intimate scene one that many dream about. 

About the artist

Louis Fratino (b. 1993) is an American artist who works primarily in figurative painting. Fratino is a gay man who uses his art to represent the unseen, the interiors, and the private lives of himself and the men he interacts with. He is considered to be part of a wave of artists reimagining the male gaze through a queer lens. 

This is Mickalene Thomas’ multimedia painting Sleep: Deux Femmes Noires (2013). In Sleep: Deux Femmes Noires, Thomas presents two women, likely lovers, naked and sleeping, seemingly floating among a sea of fragmented scenes of trees. Thomas’ process is something that many people wonder about when coming across her work. Her work manifests in many stages, particularly for works like Sleep which combine photography, collage, and painting. First, Thomas photographs her models and then creates a collage using the photograph as a base (See image below).

Finally, she creates the painting using the collage as a reference. Incorporating paint as well as rhinestones onto the surface, which in this case is wood panel.

The Content soul is relaxed and satisfied. Thomas’ image presents these two women sleeping and at peace in a manner where the viewer can see the calmness and comfort they feel in each other’s presence. 

About the artist

Mickalene Thomas (b. 1971) is an American artist who creates works combining painting with non-traditional materials (like rhinestones) and techniques (like collage). She depicts almost exclusively Black women, often nude, sometimes sexual. She engages with histories of exploitation and objectification that Black women face in media, the arts, and daily life. 

This is Adrian Moves to Berlin (2007) a video performance by Adrian Piper. The video shows Piper dancing in Alexanderplatz in Berlin. The dance itself is improvised. We watch as she engages with the environment around her. In 2007, Piper moved from the United States to Berlin in what she called “an Escape”.

About the artist

Adrian Piper (b. 1948) is both an artist and a Kantian philosopher. Her work investigates professional ostracism, otherness, and racial identity, particularly around racial “passing”.