Sienna Shields (born 1976) is an American abstract artist specializing in large-format collage pieces. She was also the chief organizer of the HowDoYouSayYaminAfrican? artist collective and the director of its digital work, Good Stock on the Dimension Floor: An Opera which was accepted for the 2014 Whitney Biennial.[1]
Sienna Shields | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1976 |
| Alma mater | Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon |
| Known for | mixed-media artwork, the Yams Collective |
| Notable work | Good Stock on the Dimension Floor: An Opera |
| Style | Abstract art |
| Website | siennashields |
Early life
editShields was born in Alaska in 1976. Both her parents were teachers and she and two siblings were home-schooled for a time while living outside Anchorage.[2] She graduated from Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon with a degree in Caribbean and Latin American history in 1998.[2] in 2001, she moved to the DUMBO collective in Brooklyn.[2]
Artistic style
editShields's working process has been influenced by the "energy and chaos" of the collectives in which she lived for much of her working life.[3] Many of her works are variations on collages of acrylic paint and multiple layers of cut or torn paper, assembled into large abstract pieces.[2] She developed this working style after college in part due to financial restraints.[3] Other works include bead sculptures, mixed media art, and digital imagery.
2014 Whitney Biennial
editThe Whitney Biennial of contemporary art is an invitation-only exhibition which generally favors young artists and in the past helped bring greater recognition to artists like Georgia O'Keeffe, Jackson Pollock and Jeff Koons.[4] The Biennial has often faced criticism over issues of privilege, access and inclusivity.[5] Shields organized the Yams Collective (short for HowDoYouSayYaminAfrican?) of 38 international mostly black and queer musicians, poets, actors, writers and visual artists to create a digital film about racial identity for the 2014 edition.[1] Shields was encouraged by this diversity, saying: "I’d go to art events, and I’d be the only black person in the room — here in New York. It was ridiculous."[1] One of the Biennial's curators, Michelle Grabner, had visited Shields in her studio and seen a short video loop she had made in Alaska.[1] This became the instigation for the collective's submission, a 53-minute digital piece in 35 parts titled Good Stock on the Dimension Floor: An Opera.[1]
Despite the collective's membership, one of the few individual black female artists invited that year was "Donelle Woolford", a creation of Joe Scanlan.[6] Scanlan, a white, male, Princeton University professor hired a succession of actresses to play "Woolford" at events. The inclusion of this "fake" artist led the Yams Collective to withdraw their submission, objecting to "Woolford's" inclusion in a show alongside their work.[7] Shields explained the withdrawal was due to not only Scanlan but also:"...the history of the Whitney and its lack of any kind of initiative in changing its white supremacist attitudes."[8] The collective also considered the inclusion of Scanlan to be a reflection of larger issues of racism in the elite art world.[9] The film instead premiered at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival.[10]
Other notable exhibitions
editSolo exhibitions
edit- July 11-September 12, 2009, The Other Line, Brooklyn, Superfront Gallery Artist in residence exhibition[11]
- January 7-February 6, 2019 Invisible Woman, Chicago, Kruger Gallery[3][12]
Joint and group exhibitions
editPersonal life
editShields married fellow artist Chuck Close in 2013[15] and he included her as a subject in his 2017 series Subway Portraits although they had by that time divorced.[16]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c d e Lee, Felicia R. (21 February 2014). "Singular Art, Made by Plurals Yams Collective Brings Work to Whitney Biennial". New York Times. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
- ^ a b c d Lovelace, Joyce (18 March 2013). "Intuitive Mapping". American Craft Magazine (published April–May 2013). Retrieved 22 November 2019.
- ^ a b c Donoghue, Katy (4 February 2016). "Cut Paper, Collage, and Beads: Sienna Shields' "Invisible Woman"". whitewall. New York: Sky Art Media, Inc. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
- ^ Kennedy, Randy (8 February 2014). "Seeking U.S. Art All Over Map. Just Check GPS". New York Times. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
- ^ Bodick, Noelle (4 March 2014). "A Brief History of the Whitney Biennial, America's Most Controversial Art Show". Artspace. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
- ^ Steinhauer, Jillian (15 November 2013). "The Depressing Stats of the 2014 Whitney Biennial". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
- ^ Heddaya, Mostafa (14 May 2014). "Artist Collective Withdraws from Whitney Biennial [UPDATED]". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
- ^ Pensky, Nathan (20 June 2014). "Race in the art world: The many faces of Joe Scanlan". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
- ^ Davis, Ben (30 May 2014). "The Yams, on the Whitney and White Supremacy". artnet.news. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
- ^ Aftab, Kaleem (4 October 2014). "Opera hits wrong note". The Independent (UK).
- ^ a b "Shields, Sienna". AAVAD.com. African American Visual Artists Database. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
- ^ "Kruger Gallery Chicago". Chicago Gallery News. January–April 2016. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
- ^ "Kuma Galerie". ArtSlant. Archived from the original on 24 November 2019. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
- ^ Wise, Lloyd (May 2013). "Fore". Artforum International. 51 (9): 332.
- ^ Hylton, Wil S. (13 July 2016). "The Mysterious Metamorphosis of Chuck Close". New York Times Magazine. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
- ^ Anderson, Tom (20 September 2017). "Legendary Painter Chuck Close on Public Art, Diversity and His Ex-Wife". InsideHook. Retrieved 22 November 2019.