Iliad Terra was born in London, UK, and lives and works in Washington, DC. He studied Fine Arts under Anne Truitt, and earned his Master’s in Architecture from the University of Maryland. He is currently CEO and Managing Principal at alfa8, a world-renowned architecture and design firm focused on AI-assisted design. Iliad’s designs have won numerous awards.
In his recent work, Iliad’s designs increasingly have been exploring the idea of creating spaces and environments that tell stories. As part of this shift in his work, Iliad started creating two dimensional concepts and paintings, which have evolved in the past few years into the Etheric Veil series.
From early childhood, drawing and painting has been an integral part of Iliad’s world as a way to explore, escape, and find meaning, and often to heal himself. Early on, Iliad had an intuitive ability to connect and see paintings appear to him as visions of fields of color and forms. He would close his eyes and see complete paintings and narratives in his mind, and he would transpose them onto paper and canvas.
Iliad has traveled extensively throughout the world, from South Asia to Sub-Saharan Africa, to Europe and throughout the Americas, all of which has given his work a broad multifaceted flavor. He has researched and explored diverse philosophies and cultures and religions, investigating paths and patterns underpinning our cities, cultures, and ultimately the human story. This experience has given Iliad’s paintings a unique atmospheric aerial perspective.
