Matthew Fields is an emerging African American laborer, Arts Educator and the artist known as Mattius Yohance.
In 2015, Matthew began his undergraduate career at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB). It was here that he was instilled with the rich history of African American Culture and the under recognized history of African American art world. While on campus, he had a small but influential role in reviving the seemingly depleted art department through reforming the campus Art Guild, organizing and hosting the campus’ first ever student run exhibition, and providing art students with opportunities to display their work and make money.
In 2017 Matthew earned an opportunity to participate in two inaugural groups orchestrated by the Alliance of HBCU galleries and museums, to introduce minority students to the world of art conservation and preservation. He was one of 12 students to visit the campus of Yale University and he was one of four students invited to the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, for an intensive practical introduction into painting conservation. There he had the privilege of getting first hand knowledge and experience with conservators of every material and object. Under the guide and teaching of Dr. Joyce Hill Stoner, lead paintings conservator at the Winterthur Museum, he and his peers began research and treatments of a Diorama from the American Negro Exposition in 1940.
In 2018, Matthew makes his way to Washington D.C. to begin a 10 week internship at the Smithsonian American Art Museum(SAAM). As apart of the Smithsonian's Conservation Internship for Broadening Access program (CIBA), he was one of 14 paid interns spread across 12 museum and Galleries working directly under conservation professionals on authentic antique objects and artworks. At SAAM, Matthew and his partner Tamara Dissi spent their stint researching and restoring another diorama from the 1940’s Negro Exposition.
In 2019, Matthew received his bachelors degree from UAPB and was accepted on a partial Scholarship into the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) low residency MFA program. He moves back to St. Louis to work as an interior and exterior painter of houses and apartments, for a Black-owned paint company. Upon completing his Graduate studies and developing his thesis framework in the summer of 2021, he officially emerged as a professional artist and an arts educator.
That brings us to today, where Matthew Fields has just completed his third year as Faculty at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff; Has had his first solo exhibition in March 2023 as an emerging professional artist at the Arts and Science Center of Southeast Arkansas. He has traveled this work to several locations since then; And he has embarked on the next stage of his educational journey by completing his first year in a Doctoral program at the Institute for Doctoral Studies in Visual Arts (IDSVA). He was awarded the 2023 David C. Driskell Fellowship from IDSVA and has engaged in several personal and professional projects in addition to his role as a professor and a student.