Cutline: Native American Artist Yatika Starr Fields will appear at NOC Tonkawa Feb. 20 at the Cultural Engagement Center.
Northern Oklahoma College Tonkawa is hosting an artist reception for Yatika Starr Fields Thursday, Feb. 20 at the Cultural Engagement Center in the Vineyard Administration Building.
The reception begins at 3:30 p.m.
Fields will talk about art, process, and cultural influence.
Fields is an artist with emphasis on studio paintings and large-scale Murals.
He is from Oklahoma and a member of the Osage, Cherokee and Muscogee Creek Nations and currently living and working in Tulsa as a fellow with the Tulsa Artist Fellowship.
His artistical endeavors have taken him around the world, working with institutions and Museums in a continuous dialogue to help broaden the views of Contemporary Native art today. His influences vary with range, often he takes his memories as a frequent source to expand upon.
After graduating from Stillwater High School, he attended the Art Institute of Boston and then New York City for a decade on the East Coast. The urban environments quickly became an open source of visual and energetic inspirations that continue to influence his works today.
In recent years, Fields’ work has taken a shift to represent the contemporary politics of today tied together with historical and traditional context through explorations in landscapes, representational motifs of culture and heritage mixed with the pop references of earlier works.
His compositions are colorful and dynamic, leaving the viewer to move the eye and find relating elements to their own journey, an orchestrated landscape of unbounded possibilities is revealed.
Fields’ artwork is on display now through March 13.
The exhibit, provided by a U.S. Department of Education grant through the Native American-Serving Nontribal Institutions (NASNTI) program, is supportive of the initiative to provide activities that highlight Native American culture.
The CEC opened in 2017 and includes contemporary learning spaces where students, faculty, and/or tribal leaders can meet; individual study or collaborative projects can be conducted; culture-based learning activities and community/cultural events can be provided; professional development can be held; and small group or individual tutoring can occur. Northern is continually striving to support the Native American student population.