860 Washington Street is pleased to present works by Washington, DC-based painter and sculptor Lilian Thomas Burwell in the lobby gallery through September 2022. Depicting the natural world through an abstract lens, Burwell renders her two-dimensional paintings in a bold palette, delving into the folds and patterns of various flora and fauna. These sweeping fields of color effortlessly transition into the peaks and valleys of her sculptural paintings, where she continues to build upon her exploration of organic forms.

At 94 years old, Burwell had her first New York solo exhibition at Berry Campbell Gallery in April of 2021. Her work was also included in Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today, an intergenerational exhibition highlighting 21 Black female abstract practitioners that traveled from Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, to The National Museum of Women in the Arts in DC, and the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida. Her work and life are the subject of the recent documentary film Kindred Spirits: Artists Hilda Wilkinson Brown and Lilian Thomas Burwell.

This exhibition was produced in partnership with Berry Campbell Gallery.