Kiko Thomas, Losing my sense of self, 2025, image transfer, oil and acrylic on canvas, 81.3 × 81.3cm (32 × 32in)



Kiko Thomas






Kiko Thomas was born in Houston, Texas, and is based in Los Angeles. He received his BFA with Honors from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and his MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. Thomas currently serves as the Mellon Undergraduate Curatorial Fellow at the Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where he studies works on paper under the mentorship of curators Tim Benson and Erin Maynes.

Working across painting, sculpture, and media, Thomas embodies the notion of a nomadic artist—living in a state of flight, escape, and fugitivity. Fugitivity refers to the act or state of running away or being a fugitive: a struggle that transforms enslavement into a pursuit of freedom, one that may never be fully attained but is persistently sought through motion. Without a permanent home, Thomas sometimes inhabits a nomadic existence, while at other times he adapts industrial or non-domestic spaces as though they were home. In doing so, he constructs a space that allows for the grace to live a full and valued life. Through this lived experience, Thomas raises questions about the divide between being perceived as deficient and being recognized as fully human and beautiful.


 Q: In your view, what are some of the “unspoken codes” — rules, expectations, or invisible frameworks — that shape how people move through the world?
A: Unspoken codes for me equals code switching. Code switching is also for me a survival tactic to protect myself.





Q: How does your practice, or this particular work, engage with or respond to these codes?
A: My practice is nomadic, moving from place to place always changing. This piece explores change.





Q: How do you navigate the balance between individuality and collective life — finding and standing by your own voice while also being connected to and supported by others?
A: Society has become increasingly individualized. Without the collective. we as artists will not be able to do the work we do.





Q: What has your path as an artist revealed to you about resilience, belonging, or empowerment in your own life?
A: I realize that my purpose is to be an artist. It has enabled me to have a voice in this world.





Q: Can you share what guided your choice of the work included in Unspoken Codes, and what you hope it might evoke for viewers?
A: I chose the piece because of the imagery of a figure with the universe inside them. I believe viewers can imagine the universe inside themselves.