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Lava Thomas

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“Lineage” opens at Jessica Silverman September 10. @jessicasilvermangallery

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FIELD NOTES | Lava Thomas: Lineage

An afternoon of looking closely and listening.

Yesterday, SFA for NMWA members joined Lava Thomas at Jessica Silverman Gallery for a visit to Lineage. Speaking about her ancestors and the research behind these works, Lava shared the family stories that connect her intimate family album to our shared American history.

Hearing those stories while standing before the portraits made the encounter especially moving. The care in each drawing, the finely rendered hair, the clothing, the expression, invited us to linger and consider each person’s dignity and character.

Lava was one of SFA's nominees for Paper Routes - Women to Watch 2020 and it was a pleasure to spend this time with her and her deeply personal work.

Thank you, Lava, for sharing these histories with us, and Jessica, for your generous welcome and continued support of women artists and SFA.

#SFAforNMWA #NMWA #LavaThomas #JessicaSilverman
@womeninthearts taken in Jessica Silverman by @lavathomas

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15 days ago

𝗟𝗮𝘃𝗮 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘀’s solo show, “Lineage,” has been named one of the “𝗕𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝗲𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗙𝗮𝗹𝗹” by 𝗞𝗤𝗘𝗗 and included on 𝗦𝗮𝗻 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼 𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗹𝗲, 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗮𝗻 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼 𝗘𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗿, and 𝟰𝟴𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗹’s must-see lists ✨

Speaking with Emily Wilson for 𝟳𝘅𝟳 about her medium, Lava Thomas said, “I like the accumulation of thousands upon thousands of lines. I like its meditative quality… l also like the fact that it’s an accessible medium, and most everyone across class, education, and geographical boundaries, has held a pencil in their hand.”

📌 Join us this 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮, for a walkthrough of Thomas’ show with MoADSF & SFMOMA Curator, 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗮 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗸𝗲𝘀.

🔗 Explore the show online

🗓️ Exhibition walkthrough: Friday, October 2, 5PM
🗓️ On view through October 24.

Images— [1, 2, 4, & 6]: Installation views of “Lava Thomas: Lineage,” Jessica Silverman, San Francisco, 2026; [3]: Lava Thomas, “Civil Rights Act of 1866, Unfinished,” 2026; [5]: Lava Thomas, “General Orders No. 3,” 2026.

#LavaThomas #KQED #BayArea #contemporaryart @lavathomas @kqed @sahotchkiss @pureewil @7x7bayarea @sfexaminer @moadsf @corneliastokes @48hillssf @sfchronicle taken in Jessica Silverman by @lavathomas

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18 days ago

Just as Maya Angelou once filled my college halls with the breath of her iconic ‘Phenomenal Woman,’ so too does the acclaimed Bay Area artist, Lava Thomas, who notably designed the 8-foot-tall bronze monument Portrait of a Phenomenal Woman dedicated to Dr. Maya Angelou for the San Francisco Public Library, carve her own phenomenal space into the canvas of the fine arts.

Lava Thomas crafts memory and archive into monuments of resilience and grace. Through the shifting languages of graphite, the visual and auditory power of tambourines, and the weight of sculpted form, she calls forth the voices too long shadowed by erasure, casting a brilliant light upon African American history and women’s enduring narratives. Her art is a sacred gathering of the marginalized—a radical act of remembrance that reclaims the past from Eurocentric confines. In her hands, forgotten archives become living altars, bridging personal inheritance with civic truth to carve out timeless spaces of healing, visibility, and durable power.

In her Lineage exhibition series @jessicasilvermangallery, she traces the long, ancestral walk from the dawn of emancipation, through the fragile promise of Reconstruction, and into the heavy shadows of Jim Crow. With a reverent hand, she breathes life into the quiet archives of the past—transmuting faded marriage lines, old death certificates, poignant obituaries, and weather-worn schoolhouses into holy testaments. Through her art, these paper fragments become a living liturgy, honoring generations of Black Americans who, with fierce grace and unyielding agency, claimed the rights of citizenship as an enduring act of faith and sovereignty.

The tambourine is another vital instrument in her visual lexicon and a central chord in her visual song. It echoes with the reverberant praise of her childhood Black church and vibrates with the abiding rhythms of political protest.

#africanamericanart #blackartist #blackart #artblogger #artcollector taken in San Francisco, California by @lavathomas

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a month ago

Breathtaking! That is the word that describes “Lava Thomas: Lineage,” which opened last Thursday at Jessica Silverman Gallery in San Francisco and is on view through October 24. @lavathomas @jessicasilvermangallery

Known for her monumental portraits, Lava’s newest body of work focuses on figures from her own ancestry in post-Emancipation Texas. On view are eight large-scale graphite and Conté pencil drawings on paper, alongside a series of hand-drawn reproductions of archival documents.

Mayor Daniel Lurie was also among those who attended the opening, joining artists, museum heads, curators, and members of San Francisco’s arts community in celebrating this extraordinary new body of work.

Following the gallery exhibition, works from the show will travel to the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas, for “Lava Thomas: In Our Own Regard,” curated by Michaela Haffner, Assistant Curator of Paintings, Sculpture, and Works on Paper, opening November 7, 2026.

Michaela flew in from Fort Worth for the opening and spent time chatting with Margot Yale, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s new Achenbach Assistant Curator of Contemporary Prints and Drawings!

Congratulations, Lava, on this extraordinary new body of work! taken in Jessica Silverman by @lavathomas

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a month ago

Still taking in the joy of Thursday evening, the opening night of “Lineage”and Sadie Barnette’s “28”at @jessicasilvermangallery , a drawing doubleheader!

Big congratulations to the incredible @sadiebarnette and deep gratitude to Jessica and the entire gallery team. Thank you @ramekon for the beautiful roses…how did I miss a photo with you? Thank you @elainemellis for the photos.

“Lineage” grew from more than a decade of genealogical and archival research into my family’s history. Seeing my son hold my granddaughter as they stood before a portrait of our ancestor brought the meaning of the exhibition fully into view. Across generations, these lives, histories, and acts of self-determination continue to be carried forward.

THANK YOU to everyone who came to celebrate with us. It was wonderful to see so many friends, family, and colleagues.

“Lineage” and “28” are on view through October 24.

Jessica Silverman
621 Grant Ave.
San Francisco, CA
Tues - Sat. 10 - 6 taken in Jessica Silverman by @lavathomas

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a month ago

“LINEAGE” opens at Jessica Silverman TONIGHT from 5-7 pm. Link in bio for more information. I’m super excited to share this new body of work with you. SEE YOU THERE!

Jessica Silverman
621 Grant Ave.
San Francisco, CA
Info@jessicasilvermangallery.com taken in Jessica Silverman by @lavathomas

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a month ago

Look who popped up in my memories today…me, a lifetime ago. by @lavathomas

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a month ago

My solo exhibition, “Lineage”, opens at Jessica Silverman on Thursday, September 10, 5-7 pm and runs through October 24th. Years in the making, this body of work features monumental portraits with drawn and printed documents based on my family archives, recovering a family history of perseverance and aspiration that is at once familial, civic and national. Rooted in the history of one American family, “Lineage” reveals how generations of Black Americans claimed and exercised the rights of citizenship after emancipation. At a moment when accounts of Black life are being written out of this nation’s history and anti-Black caricature and denigration are again being amplified by the state, “Lineage” brings the dignity, agency and self-regard of my ancestors’ self-fashioned images into public view.

Hope to see you at the opening!

Here are a few shots of a work in progress. Image: Unnamed but Not Unknown (Promise), 2026.

Lava Thomas : Lineage
Jessica Silverman
621 Grant Ave.
San Francisco, CA
Opening reception: Sept. 10th, 5-7pm

@jessicasilvermangallery #blackportraiture #drawingamericanhistory #soloexhibition #contemporarydrawing taken in Jessica Silverman by @lavathomas

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2 months ago

Jessica Silverman is delighted to present “𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗮𝗴𝗲,” the gallery’s first exhibition with 𝗟𝗮𝘃𝗮 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘀, opening on 𝗦𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟬 and running through 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟰, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲.

Known for her monumental portraits, 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘀’s newest body of work focuses on figures from her own ancestry in post-Emancipation Texas. On view will be eight large-scale graphite and Conté pencil drawings on paper alongside a series of hand-drawn and printed reproductions of archival documentation.

At a moment when the federal government is targeting museums and monuments in an attempt to suppress public memory of Black life in the United States, “𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗮𝗴𝗲” advances a cultural imperative to assert their lives as constitutive of American history.

🔗 Preview the show with the link in our bio.

𝗟𝗮𝘃𝗮 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘀: 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗮𝗴𝗲
🗓️𝗦𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟬-𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟰, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲
🗓️𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: 𝗦𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟬, 𝟱–𝟳 𝗣𝗠
🗓️𝗘𝘅𝗵𝗶𝗯𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗪𝗮𝗹𝗸𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁 and 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗮 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗸𝗲𝘀 (part of 𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘂𝘀: 𝗦𝗙/𝗕𝗮𝘆 𝗔𝗿𝗲𝗮 𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸): October 2, 5-7PM

Images: [1]: Portrait of Lava Thomas in her studio. Photo: Em Monforte. [2]: Lava Thomas, Mrs. Elizabeth “Bettie” Arthur (Steadfast), 2026. [3-4]: General Orders, No. 3, 2026. [5]: Unknown but Not Unnamed II (Promise), 2026. [6]: Mr. Oscar Gardner (Composed), 2026. [7-8]: East Side Elementary Schoolhouse, 2026. Photos by Philip Maisel. Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco. by @lavathomas

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2 months ago

I’m outta here…#fly by @lavathomas

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2 months ago

It’s always bittersweet when drawings leave the studio. I have lived and breathed this body of work for years. Now it’s time for it to make its way in the world. Thank you @atthowefineartservices for handling my work with such care. #monumentaldrawings #contemporarydrawing #portraiture #worksonpaper #blackportraiture by @lavathomas

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2 months ago

Curator. Artist. Gallerist. ✨

Perusing my photos and came across this epic image from February 2025 featuring three A+ art-world women! The art world is a richer, more vibrant place because of these three stellar individuals:

Key Jo Lee — Chief Curator, Museum of the African Diaspora @moadsf
Lava Thomas — Artist Extraordinaire @lavathomas
Karen Jenkins-Johnson — Jenkins Johnson Gallery @jenkinsjohnsongallery

Three powerhouse women shaping culture, championing artists, and making an indelible mark on the art world. ❤️🎨 by @lavathomas

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2 months ago