Drawings that Thomas did of those two women, titled Looking Back 1 and Looking Back 2, were part of an exhibition at the Berkeley Art Center<\/a> in 2015. Now, more monumental drawings of Thomas\u2019s Texas ancestors, as well as documentation of their lives, make up Lineage, her first solo exhibition at Jessica Silverman<\/a>.<\/p>\n Thomas works in different mediums<\/a>, including public art, such as Portrait of a Phenomenal Woman, the statue of writer Maya Angelou<\/a> outside the main branch of the San Francisco library\u2014and installations like her hundreds of pink tambourines with quotes by women such as Sojourner Truth in Resistance Reverb: Movement 1, on view at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. But drawing is her favorite. Thomas says she was blessed with an innate talent for it, which the precise and moving portraits in Lineage make clear. <\/p>\n Thomas has drawn since she could wrap her fingers around a writing implement, and it\u2019s a medium she always returns to. <\/p>\n \u201cI like the accumulation of thousands upon thousands of lines. I like its meditative quality,\u201d she says. \u201cl 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Like most of Thomas\u2019 work, the drawings in the show are made with graphite and Cont\u00e9 crayon, sometimes with charcoal and watercolor added. Thomas, who keeps multiple sharpeners, both electric and manual, in her studio for her pencils, says the combination of these gives her both control and the kind of dark marks that can be seen across the room. <\/p>\n Thomas has used these materials with precision and care to create works of her Texas ancestors like Grace and Bearing, 2026, which shows a woman sitting in a chair. Her pearl necklace, the flowers on the table next to her, and her black shawl are rendered with incredible detail. I Stand Upright in My Own Regard, 2026, is a full-length portrait of a man. Thomas used charcoal for his double-breasted overcoat, which is textured like velvet. He stands next to a chair with a hat placed on it, looking at the viewer. Thomas used watercolor for the eyes, emphasizing his even gaze.<\/p>\n The show also contains Thomas\u2019 first architectural drawing, East Side Elementary Schoolhouse, 2026, showing the one-room segregated schoolhouse in Decatur, the small town where her ancestors came from. Thomas\u2019s grandmother had related stories about the town and the school (which she was instrumental in getting landmarked), and Thomas visited in 2019 when she was doing an artist residency in Fort Worth. She went to the Chamber of Commerce and explained she was doing research on her family and looking for landmarks her grandmother had told her about. The woman behind the counter pulled out a map and showed her where everything was. <\/p>\n The show also contains documents rendered so carefully it\u2019s hard to believe they aren\u2019t photos. They include the sign on the schoolhouse, birth and death certificates, and the Civil Rights Act of 1866. <\/p>\n Seeing her family\u2019s history and portraits now on the walls of the gallery, Thomas says she feels a sense of exhilaration. Her emotions while spending hours making the marks to depict her ancestors included sadness for what her family had been through, as well as some understanding of the transformation from enslavement to emancipation and claiming their rights as citizens. <\/p>\n \u201cMy ancestors pursued those rights, particularly through education, through building and belonging to Black civic organizations, and their manner of dress\u2014the way they presented themselves, the evidence of some financial stability, these ideas around aspiration and building families,\u201d she explains. \u201cI feel an enormous amount of pride drawing them and knowing that they were doing this in Texas during a time when the KKK was at its height. They were doing this against this backdrop of real racial violence, and they still managed to build lives and have homes and educate themselves and build some sense of financial stability.\u201d<\/p>\n Her great-grandparents\u2019 determination that their daughter, Thomas\u2019 grandmother, go to high school led them to leave Decatur, where the school only went through the eighth grade. Thomas\u2019 grandmother graduated as the valedictorian of her class. <\/p>\n The portraits of Thomas\u2019 ancestors will also be on view in their home state when this show travels to the Amon Carter Museum of American Art<\/a> in Fort Worth for Lava Thomas: In Our Own Regard on November 7th. <\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/lava-thomas-lineage-is-on-display-u00a0at-jessica-silverman-gallery-in-san-francisco-u00a0through-oc.jpeg\")
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