About me
Lava Thomas is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the intersections of race, gender, representation, and collective memory. Grounded in an ethos of social justice, her practice spans drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, and site-specific installation. Thomas engages historical archives, African American protest traditions, and intersectional feminism to amplify visibility and honor those whose contributions have been overlooked or erased.Born in Los Angeles and based in Berkeley, California, Thomas studied at UCLA’s School of Art Practice and earned a BFA from California College of the Arts. Her work has been exhibited at leading institutions including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Museum of the African Diaspora, and the California African American Museum. It is held in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, among others.Thomas’s Mugshot Portraits: Women of the Montgomery Bus Boycott reclaims the visual legacy of civil rights heroines, while her public monument Portrait of a Phenomenal Woman, honoring Maya Angelou, marks a historic moment in San Francisco’s civic art collection. Her work has been recognized with awards from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, Artadia, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.Through acts of remembrance and reimagining, Thomas challenges dominant narratives and invites viewers to engage with the emotional and political dimensions of history. Her practice affirms the power of art to heal, disrupt, and transform.In the fall of 2024, The San Francisco Arts Commission unveiled Thomas’s Portrait of a Phenomenal Woman: A Monument to Honor Dr. Angelou for the San Francisco Main Library, the first public monument dedicated to a Black woman in the city’s civic art collection.
Thomas has received numerous accolades, including an Academy of Arts and Letters Purchase Prize, a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant for Painters and Sculptors, a San Francisco Artadia Award, and a KALA Art Institute’s Master Artist Award. She was named a YBCA100 Honoree and was recognized as one of the “Women to Watch” by the San Francisco Advocacy for the National Museum of Women in the Arts. She has been awarded artist residencies at Headlands Center for the Arts, the Joan Mitchell Center, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and the Lucas Artists Residency Program at Montalvo Center for the Arts.
Thomas studied at UCLA’s School of Art Practice and earned a BFA from California College of the Arts (CCA), where she serves on the Presidential Advisory Board. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Headlands Center for the Arts and is a former trustee of the Alliance of Artists Communities and the Djerassi Resident Artists Residency Program. Her work has been featured in Artforum, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Hyperallergic, SF Chronicle, The Guardian, and more.
Thomas is represented by in San Francisco, CA.
