Born in Oklahoma, artist Anita Fields creates works of clay and textile that reflect the worldview of her native Osage culture. Her practice explores the complexities of cultural influences and the intersections of balance and chaos found within our lives. The early Osage notions of duality, such as earth and sky, male and female, are represented in her work.
Heavily textured layers and distorted writing are elements found in both her clay and textile works. These reference the complex layers and distortion of truths found in the written history of indigenous cultures. “The power of transformation and transformative actions are realized by creating various forms of clothing, coverings, and figures. The works become indicators of how we understand our surroundings and visualize our place within the world.” Landscapes, environment, and the powerful influences of nature are themes found throughout the work of Anita Fields. They reflect time, place, and how the earth holds the memory of cultures who once called a specific terrain home.
Fields creates narratives that asks viewers to consider other ways of seeing and being in an effort to understand our shared existence. Fields’ work has been featured in American Craft, Ms Magazine, American Style, and First American Art. Her works can be found in several collections, such as the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Museum of Art and Design, New York City, the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, and the Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona.
Fields’ sculptures were exhibited in “Changing Hands,” Museum of Art and Design, New York City “Who Stole the Teepee?,” NMAI, Smithsonian, New York City, “Legacy of the Generations,” National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. “Art for A New Understanding: Native Voices,” Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Arkansas, and “Fluent Generations: The Art of Anita, Tom, and Yatika Fields,” Sam Noble Museum, Norman, Oklahoma.
In addition, the Minneapolis Institute of Art commissioned a contemporary textile for the “Hearts of Our People” traveling exhibit. Her work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Art and Design, New York City, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, Crystal Bridges Museum, Arkansas, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota and the Heard Museum,
Arizona. Fields is a 2017, 2018, 2019 & 2020 Tulsa Artist Fellow and a 2020 George Kaiser Family Foundation Arts Integration awardee.
“Much of the work I create reflects the early Osage notions of duality, such as earth and sky, male and female. We live in a time where there is a disconnect from the natural world with little regard to the importance of our environment. By articulating the concepts of balance and the symbiotic relationships found throughout life and nature, I hope to deepen our understanding of the intersection of all living things.”
“The work I make signifies a continuum of thought, knowledge, and the essence of who we are as indigenous peoples living in a modern, chaotic, and challenging world. I want to convey the beauty and importance of other cultures and the thought that there are many ways of looking at the world.”
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