Drawing from historicized images of women in art, fiction, and our collective imagination, Barbara Ishikura and Sam Fields explore intimacy through imagery, process, and materials.

Sam Fields is a multimedia artist who creates intricate, layered sculptures. In her work, crocheted ruffle upon ruffle, beads, sequins, lace, and embroidery elevate what has been traditionally considered low brow in western society.

In her paintings, Barbara Ishikura depicts women who display their unabashed sexuality and crass pleasures. Their presence within beautiful and refined interior spaces creates tension.

Using a visual language associated with the feminine and traditionally viewed as unsophisticated, their work celebrates and reclaims an opulence of ornament, a particular aesthetic of glorious beauty. These artists are giving form and color to domestic objects and intimate spaces in order to expand what women’s sexuality and being can look, feel, smell, sound, and taste like.

In the lobby of the Wilson Museum, Ishikura and Fields have paired their work with selections by former students: Dan Nguyen, Perla Mabel, and Katherine Wildman. Through genre, theme, and material, their work continues the conversation around representing femininity.

Cover image: Barbara Ishikura, Sam in the Studio
Selected artworks of Barbara Ishikura’s courtesy of the artist and FORMah Gallery