Recently, Yale MFA alum Felandus Thames MFA ’10 was interviewed for a feature in ArtNews about his beaded portraits of Black luminaries, some of which were featured in the inaugural Aldrich Decennial, which highlights the work of 40 artists living and working in Connecticut.
On his work, Thames says,
“I guess part of what I’m trying to express with the beaded curtains is connecting people back to memory,” he said. “I felt like the beaded curtain was a device that could speak to Black interiority and at the same time be a reference to Black liberation theology in the sense of pro-Blackness and also Black hair.”
Read more here.
Photo credit: Felandus Thames, Jubilee (Margaret Walker), 2025. Courtesy the artist.