Painter and educator Lila Alexis Thomas is having a busy summer. In addition to curating the group show This Room is Ours: Centering the Black Figure, on view through July 18 at ARTS at King Street Station, Thomas is heading up programming connected to the exhibition—she will host a figure drawing workshop July 11th—as well as leading a figure drawing series with Actualize AiR. “The workshops will take place on July 29th, August 26th, and September 30th from 6 to 8 pm,” Thomas says. “They are open sessions where people can draw the figure from life, and I’ll offer guidance, quick tips, and support throughout.”
Thomas will be showing her work at the Seattle Art Fair with Actualize and Shunpike, and she has pieces in Actualize AiR’s summer showcase. “There will be a lot of opportunities to see my work this summer,” she says. A figurative painter originally from Louisiana, Thomas roots her work in community, focusing on moments of Black and queer joy and framing her subjects in a way that makes the viewer feel as though they have been granted access to a private moment. She imbues her work with a dreamy softness that turns everyday scenes—a quiet moment at home, friends sharing a candlelit dinner, someone drinking coffee—into deep wells of emotion.
Photo by Amaris Mei
“Curating This Room is Ours: Centering the Black Figure came from a desire to create a space where Black figures are seen in their fullness, not through erasure, stereotype, struggle, or marginality, but through presence, joy, tenderness, stillness, and dignity,” Thomas says of the show, which also features work from Seattle-based artists Kamari Bright, Le’Ecia Farmer, Nahom Ghirmay, Adrienne Matthews, and Ric’kisha Taylor. “I hope people leave the exhibition feeling the beauty, complexity, and expansiveness of Black life. I also hope it contributes, even in a small way, to a larger renaissance of Black art in Seattle, where Black artists are not only included, but centered, celebrated, and given room to dream beyond survival.”
This Room is Ours: Centering the Black Figure is on view through July 18 at ARTS at King Street Station.
Name:
Lila Alexis Thomas (she/they)
Hometown:
Houma, Louisiana
Discipline:
Painter, educator, and curator
Favorite Spot in Seattle:
The Cedar Teahouse
Jungle Beats, 2026. Acrylic on canvas, 56” x 66”.
Courtesy of Lila Alexis Thomas
Describe your work in three words.
Tender. Warm. Expansive.
When did you know you wanted to be an artist?
I feel like it just kind of happened. Art has always been a way for me to express myself and to create a different form of language. Growing up as a very shy child, art became a way for me to communicate when words did not always feel easy. In a lot of ways, I think I always knew I wanted to be an artist because it was all I ever really did. It was the place I kept returning to.
Dancing in Crown Heights (Reworked from film photo by Liza Thomas), 2025. Acrylic on canvas, 80” x 75”.
Courtesy of Lila Alexis Thomas
Where do you find inspiration?
I find inspiration mostly through everyday life, especially sweet and intimate moments with my friends, time spent in nature, music, and film. I’m often inspired by a random still from one of my favorite films or by the mood a song creates. Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of ambient music, especially Black ambient artists like Nala Sinephro, whose work feels very dreamy and spacey. I’m also inspired by artists like Solange and Kelela, whose music creates such rich emotional and visual worlds.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on a lot of different things at once, but they all feel connected. I’m continuing a series of paintings that depict Black sapphic and Black queer couples in their homes and in intimate settings. I’m also continuing a dynamic dance series that shows Black folks in moments of connection, movement, and euphoria. Alongside those larger bodies of work, I’m also making pieces for smaller shows and group exhibitions.
What draws you to your particular medium?
I’m drawn to oil paint because of how much there is to explore. Even though I’ve been painting with oil for about nine or ten years, I still feel like I’ve barely touched the surface of what it can do. I love the range of color, texture, and surface you can create with it. It can be thick, thin, soft, layered, smooth, or really expressive.
I’ve also been interested in acrylic and the way it can mimic certain qualities of oil while also speeding up my process. I’m less precious with acrylic, which gives me more room to experiment. I like moving between different 2D materials, whether that’s oil, acrylic, gouache, charcoal, or conté. Each medium opens up a different way of thinking and making.
Tell us about your proudest moment as an artist.
There have been so many moments that have felt meaningful, especially since moving to Seattle in 2021. Having my first exhibition at Inscape Arts through their former artist residency program, my first solo show in Washington at Geheim Gallery in Bellingham, and my first solo show in Seattle at Hologram Gallery were all really beautiful moments that helped lead me to where I am now.
But one of my proudest moments was the opening of This Room is Ours: Centering the Black Figure at ARTS at King Street Station, the exhibition I curated and am also part of. It was really beautiful to share space with artists I have admired for a long time, and to see all of our work held together in such a beautiful gallery.
A Love Surrounded, 2026. Acrylic on canvas, 48” x 68”.
Courtesy of Lila Alexis Thomas
What made that moment especially meaningful was having my family, who are from the South come to Seattle for the first time and see me in my element. To have my family, friends, colleagues, loved ones, and different communities I’ve built in Seattle all in one room celebrating me and the other artists was incredibly special. It felt like all of these different parts of my life were finally meeting each other. Seeing how proud my family was of me made the moment feel even more tender and full.
Share one piece of advice you wish you knew when you were first starting out.
One piece of advice I wish I knew when I was first starting out is to keep being authentically myself, even in spaces where people may not fully understand me or be as warm and open. I’ve learned that there is strength in continuing to be soft, generous, and true to myself.
I would also tell myself to never give up on my studio practice and to build good studio habits early. Even just going to the studio, whether I paint that day or not, matters. Sometimes the quiet or idle time is where ideas start to gather. I’ve had to learn that being an artist does not always mean constantly producing. Rest, living life, being with friends, and taking in small moments are also part of the practice. Those moments feed the work too.
Define success on your terms.
Success, for me, means being able to keep making work that feels honest and expansive. It means having the time, space, and support to keep growing as an artist without having to abandon care, rest, or community. Success also means creating work and opportunities that make other people feel seen, especially Black and queer people who have not always been centered in art spaces. I don’t think of success only as awards or exhibitions, though those things are meaningful. I also think success is being able to build a life around my practice, to stay connected to the people I love, and to keep making work that feels true to who I am.
Cradle, 2021. Oil on panel, 36”x 45”.
Courtesy of Lila Alexis Thomas
What do you still hope to accomplish?
I hope to continue expanding the vision behind This Room is Ours: Centering the Black Figure. For this first version, I worked within the capacity I had, but I would love to see the exhibition grow into something larger, with twenty or thirty Black artists working across even more mediums and fully taking up a major gallery space in Seattle.
I also hope to keep building spaces for Black and BIPOC artists to show their work, gather, and feel supported. There are already people doing this important work in Seattle, and I want to continue contributing to a more sustainable artist community here, especially spaces made by artists and for artists.
Familiar Rhythms, 2025. Acrylic on canvas, 48”x 48”.
Courtesy of Lila Alexis Thomas
In my own studio practice, I still hope to keep pushing myself. I’m still learning so much about painting, and I want to keep experimenting, expanding, and challenging what I think paint can do.
If you weren’t making art, what would you be doing?
Honestly, art has been my whole life, so it’s hard to imagine doing anything completely outside of it. It’s all I’ve ever really known. But if I weren’t making visual art, I think I would still be doing something creative, maybe interior design. I love thinking about space, color, objects, and how a home can hold someone’s personality, comfort, and sense of belonging. So even then, I think I would still be creating in some way.
