“I want people to walk into a room and feel like it was built for them. Then I want them to have the photograph to prove it.”
Jade Lilly
The Beginning
A living
thread
Jade Lilly is an experiential artist, photographer, textile artist, and creative director working between Detroit and Miami. Her practice runs on two ends of one thread: rooms built by hand, and the photographs made inside them.
She is a partner in SUĀDE, an experiential design and creative production studio. Her purpose, in her own words: to make people feel truly seen.
Two Worlds
Handmade
reminders of joy
One world is photo activation: she designs and fabricates the set, then stands behind the camera in it. Museums, festivals, launches, and private dinners hire her for the whole arc, from the first sketch of a room to the gallery of portraits in a guest’s hands a week later.
The other is fiber: a place where curiosity lives and keeps growing. It started with flowers and charms, grew into portals you walk through, and who knows what will come next. The two are the same instinct at different scales, color you can stand inside and color you can hold.
“Color over caution. People over poses. Rooms over backdrops. Joy over trend. Seen over perfect.”
The Studio
Built, then
photographed
Everything is made in house: the drape, the frame, the florals, the fiber, the light. She directs the crew that installs it and stays for the shoot, which is why the photographs never look borrowed from the room. They were made for it.
In the World
The rooms travel.
Her work has stood in Michigan Central, the Charles H. Wright Museum, Pérez Art Museum Miami, MOCAD, MOCA North Miami, and at AFROPUNK. It has been seen with Vogue, NASDAQ, Apple, Leica, and Ford. What travels is not a set piece. It is a way of making people feel welcome enough to be photographed honestly.
What She Does
- Photo Activations
- Photoshoots
- Set Design
- Fabrication
- Textile Commissions
- Creative Direction
- Content Licensing
- Experiential Marketing
As seen in
Vogue. The NASDAQ tower in Times Square.
Worked with
Apple, Leica, Ford, Microsoft, Michigan Central, PAMM, MOCAD, MOCA North Miami, AFROPUNK.