DVAA Member since 2022
Jihan A. Thomas
Artist website:
About:
Jihan A. Thomas is a Black visual artist, Artivist, Mother, and community/museum arts educator based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. To Jihan, art can be a conduit for empowerment and self-actualization, and she shares her art and creativity wherever art is needed throughout Philadelphia through art making and cultural experiences. As an art educator, Jihan believes in the power and spectrum of Black imagination and how it can support classroom student engagement in learning.
Jihan has been the Museum Education Division Director for the Pennsylvania Art Education Association and has over 17 years experience creating art programing for local Philadelphia arts and cultural institutions such as the African American Museum in Philadelphia, The School District of Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Barnes Foundation and The Grounds for Sculpture in New Jersey. She has exhibited her artwork with Vox Poppoli, Davinci Art Alliance, Art In City Hall Philadelphia, The Ice Box and Rocnation.
Artist Statement:
Jihan uses a variety of mediums in her artwork such as painting, drawing, illustration, textiles, printmaking, and ceramics. Elements in Jihan's work includes symbolism, Black surrealism, abstraction, landscape and the Black figure.
Themes found in her work are Black womanhood, motherhood, sisterhood, love, ecology, disability, joy, and pain. Thorough her artwork, Jihan develops a visual vernacular of nostalgia through her use of colors, textures and patterns.
Exhibitions at DVAA:
