Sam is drawn to the materials and processes that have historically lived outside of an “Art” context, she strives to make work that can live in and speak to the different worlds of 'high' and 'low.' “I make--slowly--with/through craft. Making slowly is a personal act of resistance against the fast-paced, multi-tasking, product-driven world in which I find myself.” As a multimedia artist, Samantha engages with these processes as a survival mechanism, aesthetic, and a conceptual strategy. Through these modes of making, she is able to explore different social constructs associated with the decorative: gender, class, professional/hobbyist, and the hierarchical categories of taste and morality. Sam received her MFA from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and her undergraduate degree from Massachusetts College of Art; and is currently a part time lecturer at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston at Tufts University.
Craft is a philosophy for me which acts as both resistance and a model for change. It is a tool for pushing against current structures of inequitable power. Craft is a place where I practice slowness, process, haptic knowledge, and enjoyable labor. Within craft I am drawn specifically to textile practice because of its complicated, often disturbing yet deeply empowering long history; for its involvement with every aspect of humanity, from our origin stories to the support or subversion of political structures; how it informs our economic systems, technology, personal history, and identity. We have a deep intimacy with cloth, the presence of our bodies living in both its process and product.
My work wrestles with questions surrounding the creation of identity through both external structures (home, community, institution) and internal structures (our psyche, personal trauma, healing), specifically engaging notions of femininity, sexuality, class hierarchy, and accessibility. It considers the ways morality becomes attached to “good” taste. I use a visual language that has been associated with the feminine and relegated to the superficial and low-brow. The work owns an opulence of ornament, a particular aesthetic of glorious beauty in low materials and accessible processes. Crocheted ruffle upon ruffle, beads, sequins, and embroidery elevates what has been traditionally considered a de-evolution of a sophisticated western society. Drawing from historicized images of women in art, mythology, fiction, and our collective imagination I use cloth as portrait, as performance, as text, as container. These spaces are woven together in a complex hermeneutic circle of string and fabric, discordant elements pushing, pulling, bulging, dripping, tightly bound, and completely unraveling; simultaneously true and not true, moving back and forth between a celebration and a rejection, a peeling back of the wound and a healing and restoration.
Education
2002-2005
MFA, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, sculpture, video, installation
1991-1996
BFA, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Fibers, 3-D
Awards/Grants
2025
Massachusetts Cultural Council grant
2024
Good Neighbor grant, The Wagner Foundation
Neighborhood and Downtown Activation Grant, City of Boston
2019
Now + There Accelerator Artist
City of Boston's Transformative Public Art program grant
Massachusetts Cultural Council grant, honorable mention sculpture, and installation
2017
Artist Resource Trust, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation artist grant
2014 St. Botolph Club Foundation, Amelia Peabody grant recipient for sculpture
2013 Puffin Foundation Grant
Fiber International, Sally Yunis Memorial Award
2012
Traveling Scholars Fellowship, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston
2011
Massachusetts Cultural Council grant, sculpture, and installation
2010
International Fiber Collaborative grant
2009/10
The Institute of Contemporary Art James and Audrey Foster Prize, nominee
2007
Artist Resource Trust, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation artist grant
2005
Deborah Dluhy SMFA Travel Grant, Paris, France
Residencies
2022
Praxis Fiber Workshop digital weaving lab residency, Cleveland, OH
2017
Arts Industry Program, John Michael Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, WI
Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
2016
Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Center, Daugavpils, Latvia
2015
Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerlitz, NY
2014
Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE
2011
Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
Solo exhibitions
2024
“Eating Beauty”, LaMontagne Gallery, Boston, MA
2023
“In-Tension”, 10b Projects, Boston, Ma
2022
“Space between the warps”, LaMontagne Gallery, Boston, MA
2019
“desires not even our own”, Centre St, Boston, MA
2017
“Mistress, Miss, Mrs. or MS, Madam?” Barrington Center for Art, Wenham, MA
“Lineplay: taut/slack,” Boston Children’s Museum, Boston, MA
2016
“When things touch,” Essex Art Center, Lawrence, MA
2012
"Ecstasy and Common Sense," Jewett Gallery, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
2011
"Ecstasy and Common Sense," N.K. Gallery, Boston, MA
2007
“Life O Rama,“ Frame 301, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, MA
2006 “no place like home,” Babson College, Wellesley, MA
“Life O Rama,” Essex Art Center, Lawrence, MA
Two-person collaborative exhibitions
2023 “
Frippery Finery Frills” Wilson Museum, Manchester, VT
2022
“What our bodies taught us” Ishibashi Gallery, Middlesex School, Concord, MA
Selected Exhibitions
2026
Crafting the mind, Somerville Musuem, Sommerville MA,
Two Things Can be True, Governors Island Dunyc House, NY, New York
Ritual Practice / Sacred Space, The Beehive Boston MA
2025
Threads that Tie us, Medford Arts Collaborative, Medford MA
If They Told You, Would You Listen? Karen and Ted Koskores Gallery, Thayer Acadamy, Braintree, MA
The Carrier Bag Theory, Nave Gallery Somerville, MA
2024
“Untitled Art Fair”, with Lamontagne Gallery, Art Basel, Miami Beach. FL
“Water Mindscapes, Experimental Cinema,” curated by Marie-Pierre Bonniol,
Boston, MA
“Kind Of Open,” LaMontagne Gallery, Boston, MA
Bold: Challenging Norms, Igniting Dialogue, Mass Art X SOWA, Boston, MA
2023
“External”, Suffolk University Gallery, Boston MA,
“Untitled Art Fair,” with Lamontagne Gallery, Art Basel, Miami Beach. FL
2022 “The Conceptual Stitch” Concord Center for the Visual Arts, Concord, MA
“Speak Up,” Piano Craft Gallery, Boston, MA
2021
“In Place”, U Gallery, UMass Boston, Boston, MA
“Alchemized Dimensions,” Praise Shadows Gallery, Brookline, MA
“Lockets and Lace,” Jameson & Thompson, Boston, MA
2020
“Soft Shoulder”, Kathryn Schultz Gallery, Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge MA
2018 “Interior Effects, Furniture in Contemporary Art”, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA
“STITCH, Syntax / Action / Reaction,” New Art Center Newton MA
“HARD: Subversive Representation”, University Hall Gallery, UMass Boston, Boston, MA
2017
“Is this something”, Lasell College, Newton, MA
KRAFTA Doc International Artmaking Film Festival, Glasgow, Scotland
2016
“Contexture”, Jane Lombard Gallery, NY, NY
“CounterCraft: Voices of the Indie Craft Community”, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA
“Brink v.2 space and intimacy” , Mills Gallery, Boston MA
2015
“24th Drawing Show: Feelers”, Mills Gallery, Boston MA
"Seven", Montserrat Gallery, Beverly, MA
“Cove”, Boston Harbor Islands, Boston , MA
2014
Gallery 72, Omaha, NE
American Textile History Museum, Lowell, MA
Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum, Myrtle Beach, SC
2013
San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, San Jose, CA
"Fiber International", Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, and
Society for Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, PA
"Interwoven", Arlington Center for the Arts, Arlington, VA
2012
"Glitz", Annmarie Sculpture Garden and Art Center, Dowell, MD
2011
"Home Sweet Home," Montserrat Gallery, Beverly, MA
"Associations," Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI
2010
"Surrealestate," Mobius, Boston, MA
2009
“Home,” Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro, MA
"Material Afterlife," Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI
2008
"Sense of Place," Art League, Long Island, NY
2007
"Word of Mouth," Bridge Art Fair, Miami, FL
“The DeCordova Annual Exhibition,” DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA
"UN Building," Mills Gallery, Boston MA
2006
“Reveal,” New Art Center, Newton, MA
“Crafty,” Bakalar Gallery, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA
“Not Just A House,” G.A.S.P., Brookline, MA
2005
“In the Game,” South Shore Art Center, Cohasset, MA
“Atopia,”
Tufts University, Medford, MA
2004 “
Closer In,” The Contemporary Artist Center, North Adams, MA
2002
“The Weight of Glory,” Cistetercian Palace Monastery, Lubiaz, Poland
“New Works,” Kingston Gallery, Boston, MA
Curated shows
2025 “Liberation Textiles: Our Social Fabric with Elizabeth Thach and Camilø Álvårez, Concord Art, Concord MA
2018 “STITCH, Syntax / Action / Reaction," New Art Center Newton, MA
2005 “Not Just A House,” G.A.S.P., Brookline, MA
Public Art Projects/Commissions
2022-present
Founder organizer and instructor of cloth collaborative studio and workshop
2025
“Vibrating Horizons” Providence Town , MA commissioned Providence Town Public Art Foundation
“Gathered threads” Commissioned by Ivey Bueno Art Advisory and The Community Builders
2024-2025 Advisory board Gather fiber symposium
2023 “Stay”, Lot Lab at the Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston, MA commissioned by the Boston Public Art Triennial
2019 “Desires not even our own”, Now and There, Boston, MA
2017 “Birthday Court” with the NCAA, Fidelity Group Boston, Boston, MA
2014 Rebuilt Robert Rohm, piece for Fiber Sculpture: 1960 to the Present, at the ICA, Boston with Mass Art students
“Winded,” The Union for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE
2013 The Beat Restaurant, Cambridge, MA
2112-2010
"The Circus Project" interactive project of making and collecting stories
2007-2010
Beehive Restaurant, Boston, MA
2009 "Home is Where the Art Is," Children's Hospital, Boston, MA
2007-2008
"Weaving Our Stories," The Martha Eliot Health Center, Jamaica Plain, MA.
2006 "Thread Counts: Stitch and Bitch," G.A.S.P. Gallery, Brookline, MA
2003 Children's Hospital, Boston, MA
Collections
Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA
John Michael Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, WI
Progressive Insurance, Cleveland, OH
Mark Rothko Art Center, Daugavpils, Latvia
Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA
Visiting Artist/guest speaker
2025
In conversation with Kate Wildman Boston Center for the Arts Gather fiber symposium: Common Cause in Fiber Art: Connection and Care
Fiber Art: The Medium is the Message, Concord Art, Artist talk, Massachusetts College of Art and Design
2024
Artist talk with Loretta Park, Montserrat College of Art
Artist talk, Boston College
Artist talk, Suffolk University
2023
Moderated conversation with Janet Lorean Hill and Alex McClay, Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, Boston , MA
2022
The Transformative Power of Fiber with Irmandy Wicaksono and Cori Champagne Now + There Accelerator Program, Perseverance in Public Art, guest artist, Boston, MA
Artist talk , The Middlesex School, Concord, MA
Artist Talk, Leslie University, Cambridge, MA
2020
Now + There, Forum, Public Art as Change-Agent: Observing the Impact, Panelist, Boston, MA
Now + There Accelerator Program, Perseverance in Public Art, guest artist, Boston, MA
First Year Program, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston at Tufts,
Visiting Artist, Boston, MA
Admissions Artist talk for Highschool students, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts
Boston at Tufts,
2019
Sculptural Weaving, Visiting Artist, Massachusetts College of Art and Design Boston, MA
2018
New Art Center, Contemporary Textile Practice, Panelist, Newton, MA
2017
“Craft after dark”, Visiting Artist, Center for Craft Creativity and Design, Ashville, NC
2016
Mills Gallery, Brink 7 interactive artist talk, Visiting Artist, Boston, MA
2015
Mills Gallery, Drawing Show, Visiting Artist, Boston, MA,
ICA, Fiber Sculpture: 1960’s to the Present, Gallery Talk of exhibition, Boston, MA
Montserrat College of Art, artist talk and roundtable discussions, Beverly, MA
Millay Colony representative to Taconic Hills High School, Visiting Artist, Austerlitz, NY
2014
Lowell Textile Museum, Visiting Artist, Lowell, MA
2012
Wellesley College, Visiting Artist, Wellesley, MA
2011
Brandeis University, Guest Critic, Waltham, MA
Press/Catalogs
2024
Sam Fields, Weaver Goddess, Misstropolis, Spirt, Style Inside and out, December 20, https://www.misstropolis.com/home/sam-fields
What does Orgasmic Fiber Art Look Like, Cate McQuaid, Boston Globe, September 22
, Cate McQuaid, Ocean in a drop, September 19,
New Aesthetics, Geraldine Slevin, FORWARD: Issue #7: Monuments & Memorials, Forecast
https://forecast-public-art.foleon.com/forward/issue-7-monuments-memorials/
2023
Community Voices: Artist-Run Projects Making Space in Their Own Neighborhoods, Jessica Shearer, Issue 11: Emerge, Boston Art Review, Fall/Winter
Showing the Story Behind Stay, ,, https://www.nowandthere.org/blog/storyofstay
A new place for public art comes to the Charlestown Navy Yard, Arielle Gray, WBUR June 9
https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/06/09/now-and-there-lot-lab-charlestown-navy-yard
, Nicole Kagan, Boston Globe, June 9
2022
Our Favorite Art Moments of 2022, Leah Triplett Harrington, Boston Art Review, December 22
https://www.bostonartreview.com/read/our-favorite-art-moments-of-2022
“Not your grandmother’s needlework: Sam Fields stretches boundaries in ‘Space Between the Warps’”, Cate McQuaid, Boston Globe March 14
2020
“At Kathryn Schultz Gallery, playful pops of comfort and delight”, Kate McQuaid, Boston Globe, 15 January
2021
#57 “Socially distant Studio Visits” Caroline Kipp. Curator of Contemporary Art at the George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum in Washington, D.C., http://carolinekipp.com/
2019
“desires not even our own” interview,
“In Jamaica Plain, artists rip into wasteful fast fashion,” Kate McQuaid, Boston Globe, 6 November
2018
“Women, subverting the script, in HARD: Subversive Representation”, Mallory Ruymann, Big Red and Shiny, 7 March
“Meet trailblazer Samantha Fields, Boston Voyager,
2017
Interview with The Arts Industry Program, John Michael Kohler Art Center,
“Arts/Industry: Samantha Fields’ gender and class ceramic discoveries,” DesignFul. , 7 August “Samantha Fields: Mistress, Miss, Mrs or Ms, Madam? John Pyper, Delious line, 01 December
Interview with The Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, "Boston Harbor Islands” by Cate McQuaid, Boston Globe 30 July,
“Island-Hopping for Art in “Boston Harbor,” by Robert Moeller, Hyperallergic, 28 July,
2014
“A World Gone Wrong”,” by Greg Cook. Providence Phoenix, 20 August,
2009
“Visions of Home,” by Janet Boulay. The Sun Chronicle (Grand Rapids, MI), 9 July
“ In the Studio with Samantha Fields,” by Matthew Nash. Big Red and Shiny, issue #115
2008
“Getting Site Specific @Bbson College by Matthew Nash. Big Red and Shiny, 10 August
2007
"DeCordova Annual Exhibition," by Ann Krinsky. Art New England, August/September issue
“Boho in Boston,” by Liza Weisstuch. New York Times, 3 June