Sienna Shields

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.

Early life Shields 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. She graduated from Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon with a degree in Caribbean and Latin American history in 1998. Many of her works are variations on collages of acrylic paint and multiple layers of cut or torn paper, assembled into large abstract pieces. The Biennial has often faced criticism over issues of privilege, access and inclusivity. 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. 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. 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." The collective also considered the inclusion of Scanlan to be a reflection of larger issues of racism in the elite art world. The film instead premiered at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival.

Other notable exhibitions Solo exhibitions July 11-September 12, 2009, The Other Line, Brooklyn, Superfront Gallery Artist in residence exhibition January 7-February 6, 2019 Invisible Woman, Chicago, Kruger Gallery

Joint and group exhibitions November 6-December 20, 2009, Francis Young & Sienna Shields, Berlin, Kuma-Galerie. November 8, 2012 – March 10, 2013, FORE, New York, Studio Museum in Harlem

Personal life Shields married fellow artist Chuck Close in 2013 and he included her as a subject in his 2017 series Subway Portraits although they had by that time divorced.