Artist Statement

Laila Filmore is a Detroit artist. She has been drawing, painting and telling stories since her childhood, when art became a way of grounding and contextualizing her experiences. Her oil paintings are set in surreal conditions, while pursuing honesty through an uncanny exploration of the psyche. She uses her personal identity and appearance to act as a tool to provide a message , she hopes to elicit from the viewer a moment of self-reflection and awareness – as personal as her work may appear, the response is universal. As a black woman, Laila wants to assert herself as a curator and narrator of her own identity and experience.

“ Painting has always felt like me trying to make my own hieroglyphics. I try to communicate through symbols and references, contorting my own flesh and pain into something that now holds it’s own space and is comprehensive to the audience. I like to imagine it as me breaking off into smaller cells that embody aspects of the internal and external traits of humanity. It acts as a metaphor for our collective individuality.” - Laila***