About Lilian
Maine + New York
Biography
Lilian Day Thorpe (b. 1991) is a photomontage artist. She grew up in Brooksville, ME, and later moved to Brooklyn, NY, where she earned her B.F.A. in Photography (2014) and M.S. in the History of Art and Design (2017), both from Pratt Institute. In 2014, she attended a month-long artists’ residency at Gullkistan Center for Creativity, Laugarvatn, Iceland. Her work has been featured in publications including Surface Magazine, Art Maze Mag, and Maine Home + Design, and her photomontages are held in private collections across the United States and internationally.
In addition to her art practice, Lilian served as Associate Director of Nancy Margolis Gallery from 2017–2022 and Director from 2022–2025.
Statement
Simultaneously painterly and photographic, my photomontage works emerge from a deep love of quietness and a need for stillness. Shooting primarily on film, I manipulate and digitally collage my photographs to create textural landscapes that hover between fiction and memory. I’m drawn to photography’s inherent realism — its tendency to capture everything in sharp detail — but I work against that instinct, pushing toward compositions that are suggestive and interpretive. Prioritizing mood over naturalism, I use a muted palette and subdued scenes to create a sense of visual and mental pause — an invitation to step away from distracting noise and into a quieter, more reflective space.
Work
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Recent Photomontages
2020–2025
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From the Archive
2013–2019
