Lela Shields was born and raised in London and attended several fine art institutions before graduating from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in 1996. She has had solo exhibitions in Denver, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sydney, Australia. She has shown internationally in England, France, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. In 2006, Lela was included in a group exhibition at The Louvre Museum in Paris, France. In 2009, Lela’s work was short-listed for the Jerwood Drawing Prize – the most competitive drawing contest in the UK. In 2019, Lela was awarded The Pirkle Jones Grant from the Marin Community Foundation.

Lela relocated to the Bay Area, in 2011, from London and currently lives and paints in her studio in West Marin County, just north of San Francisco, California.