MY BIG BREAK: 7 ARTISTS ON EARLY MILESTONES THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF THEIR CAREERS (EXCERPT)

My first big break? When Klaus Biesenbach organized the commission of Le Déjeuner Sur L’herbe: Les Trois Femmes Noires for the front window of the Modern, the Museum of Modern Art’s restaurant. It was a site-specific project installed from 2010 to 2013 and it was shot in the MoMA sculpture garden; the same location where many phenomenal women artists had performed and exhibited before me. At that time, it was the largest painting I had made, at around 13 by 18 feet, and it was my most visible painting at that time due to all the press and visitor comments it received. This, however, predated the social media craze of Instagram and Facebook. It was a groundbreaking moment to have three beautiful, powerful, and sexy black women among the existing MoMA women.