This Room is Ours: Centering the Black Figure

Painting of a group of young Black people eating around a dinner table

This Room is Ours: Centering the Black Figure

May 21, 2026 - July 18, 2026

Reception: June 4, 2026

This Room is Ours: Centering the Black Figure, curated by Lila Alexis Thomas, features their work alongside with Seattle-based artists Kamari Bright, Le’Ecia Farmer, Nahom Ghirmay, Adrienne Matthews, and Ric’kisha Taylor, presenting figurative works that center the Black body in moments of joy, stillness, ease, and empowered presence. Through painting, video-poetry, photography, textiles, sculpture and mixed media, this exhibition offers a contemporary reimagining that places Black subjects in positions of dignity and fullness, and holding space for tenderness.

Curator Bio

Portrait from the shoulders up of a young Black woman in a painting studio in the sunlight.

Photo by Bianca Recuenco

Lila Alexis Thomas (she/they) is a Seattle-based figurative painter and educator from Southern Louisiana. Lila’s work is rooted in community, Black and queer joy, rest, and the deep, unspoken understanding that comes from gathering together, Lila’s work captures moments of intimacy, connection, and ease. Their paintings offer a counter-narrative to the historical erasure of Black and queer identities in Western art, centering the Black figure in spaces of tenderness, sovereignty, and belonging. Lila earned their BFA in Drawing and Painting from Nicholls State University.

Lila’s an artist in residence at Actualize AiR and their work has been featured in Seattle Art Fair, Actualize Gallery, ARTS at King Street Station, Hometeam Gallery, Hologram Gallery, Koplin Del Rio, Geheim Gallery, Forest for the Trees, Manifest Gallery, North Seattle College Art Gallery, Behnke Family Gallery, and many more. 

Arts & Culture

Amy Nguyen, Director
Address: 303 S. Jackson Street, Top Floor, Seattle, WA , 98104
Mailing Address: PO Box 94748, Seattle, WA , 98124-4748
Phone: (206) 684-7171
Fax: (206) 684-7172
arts.culture@seattle.gov

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The Office of Arts & Culture promotes the value of arts and culture in, and of, communities throughout Seattle. It strives to ensure that a wide range of high-quality artistic experiences are available to everyone, encourage artist-friendly arts and cultural policy.