Phillip Thomas was born in 1980, in Kingston, Jamaica. Thomas received his BFA in Painting in 2003 from the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts and received the Albert Huie award for Painting at the end of his studies there. He later earned his MFA at the New York Academy of Art. Phillip Thomas has exhibited extensively locally and internationally and is represented in major collections. His awards include the Bronze Musgrave Medal for excellence in art in 2014, the Public Prize in the 2006 SuperPlus Under 40 Artist of the Year competition and the Aaron Matalon Award in the 2008 National Biennial. In his oil paintings and mixed-media works, artist Phillip Thomas combines the imagery and traditions of the Old Masters with contemporary textures and patterns to create a new iconography. As he puts it, “You want a way to lure people into the image, and then it unfolds itself, like a very slow car crash. I try in many ways to present the audience to themselves.” Thomas lives in Kingston, Jamaica.