Self-taught in drawing and painting, Ila Mira uses unique abstract and figurative techniques in her work. She abstracts bodily functions and the visceral into poetic or metaphorical gesture as a means of escape from physical monotony. Informed by a lived experience of chronic pain, automated biological processes are romanticized and given a spiritual narrative to transcend human anatomy. She explores relational dynamics and states of being such as loneliness, connection, apathy, hunger, confrontation, ecstasy etc. She often depicts figures in isolation and solitude, leaving the line slightly blurred as to which state is truly being occupied. Ila scrutinizes the conscious vs. subconscious in her work with a goal of understanding emotional/behavioural patterns and paints her figures ambiguously alike. It is intentionally unclear if two figures are separate individuals or one person being represented in relation to themselves having negotiations with one’s self and with desires.

Ila attended OCADU in Toronto for digital media and performance art. She grew up with her mother and aunt; both painters at the time attending Emily Carr University in Vancouver and her father studying to be a psychologist. Her grandfather was a house painter; he taught her how to hold a brush. She is currently based between Toronto and Lisbon.