Thomas Stokes III (American, b. 1997) is a painter and digital artist based in San Antonio, Texas. His work centers on surreal, fragmented portraits that manipulate the human face. His figures often have extra mouths or unraveling heads. He began painting after high school and taught himself the medium.
Stokes began drawing at a young age, and his self-taught work developed into portraiture of broken figures that combines organic lines and forms with their silhouettes. He cites Picasso and Francis Bacon among his influences. In 2019 the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio showed 14 of his paintings in its Artists Looking at Art series, while he worked there as a gallery services officer. They included imaginary portraits inspired by fashion photography and fragmentary self-portraits he painted from memory.
