Lila Alexis Thomas
Lila Alexis Thomas
Lila Alexis Thomas (she/they) is a Seattle-based figurative painter and educator from Southern Louisiana whose work centers Black and queer intimacy, community, and belonging. Working from life and digital collage, Thomas constructs layered compositions that honor everyday moments of tenderness, rest, and sanctuary. Her paintings draw deeply from personal and collective archives—utilizing food, music, family, and domestic ritual to reimagine spaces of care and expand representations of Black life within the Western canon. A recipient of the 2026 Artist Trust Fellowship and a Neddy Award finalist, Thomas has exhibited widely, including at the Seattle Art Fair, ARTS at King Street Station, and Koplin Del Rio. She currently serves as an Artist-in-Residence at Actualize AiR.
Lila Alexis Thomas (she/they) is a Seattle-based figurative painter and educator from Southern Louisiana whose work centers Black and queer intimacy, community, and belonging. Working from life and digital collage, Thomas constructs layered compositions that honor everyday moments of tenderness, rest, and sanctuary. Her paintings draw deeply from personal and collective archives—utilizing food, music, family, and domestic ritual to reimagine spaces of care and expand representations of Black life within the Western canon. A recipient of the 2026 Artist Trust Fellowship and a Neddy Award finalist, Thomas has exhibited widely, including at the Seattle Art Fair, ARTS at King Street Station, and Koplin Del Rio. She currently serves as an Artist-in-Residence at Actualize AiR.
In Strata, Lila Alexis Thomas presents two figurative paintings that establish a vital somatic and relational layer within the exhibition’s physical terrain. While Strata explores physical compression and material endurance, Thomas turns inward to examine the emotional geology of home, care, and sanctuary. Her richly painted compositions treat domestic spaces, shared meals, and quiet embrace as deeply rooted foundational structures—strata built from personal and collective memory.
In Strata, Lila Alexis Thomas presents two figurative paintings that establish a vital somatic and relational layer within the exhibition’s physical terrain. While Strata explores physical compression and material endurance, Thomas turns inward to examine the emotional geology of home, care, and sanctuary. Her richly painted compositions treat domestic spaces, shared meals, and quiet embrace as deeply rooted foundational structures—strata built from personal and collective memory.
In her featured works, Thomas uses light, color, and intimate interior settings to map the quiet resilience of Black and queer belonging. Her paintings demonstrate that human connection, rest, and tenderness form enduring layers of sanctuary that sustain us through time, offering a poetic and necessary human anchor to the exhibition’s broader dialogue on accumulated history and structural weight.
In her featured works, Thomas uses light, color, and intimate interior settings to map the quiet resilience of Black and queer belonging. Her paintings demonstrate that human connection, rest, and tenderness form enduring layers of sanctuary that sustain us through time, offering a poetic and necessary human anchor to the exhibition’s broader dialogue on accumulated history and structural weight.
