Anne Pollard James' work is joyful reclamation. Through provocation, humor, and strength, she examines equality and personal truths through a contemporary figurative lens. By exploring the complex way we navigate in the spaces that surround us, she hopes her work emboldens women to take up space. Anne's paintings are loud, hard, soft, sweet and sharp, always through the lens of the spectacular strength of women.
Anne Pollard James (b. 1972) is a contemporary oil painter working in Oklahoma. Largely self-taught, her works explore the way women thrive in spaces often not made for or by them. How we costume, how we are so often told to be other; to be softer, harder, prettier, rounder, plainer, shinier and always, smaller. Through her art, she celebrates the way we boldly take up space.
Anne came to art in her late 40s and found painting the week before the world shut down in 2020. With a background in historic preservation real estate development, a field predominantly male, much of her perspective stems from how complex and nuanced those interactions often were. Her discovery of painting was transformative, leading her to fully embrace her art career in 2022. She is moved to explore the incredible strength of women from intimate figures, provocative imagery, to vivid floral compositions. Her work ranges from small, personal pieces to large-scale, commissioned projects. Most recently, she is focused on The Delight Project: Art & Archive, a series of ten monumentally scaled paintings of Oklahoma women that radically reclaims ownership of the gaze.
Anne’s work has been featured in group exhibitions in Oklahoma, New York City, California, and she has held solo exhibitions at Frank Loyd Wright’s Price Tower and Positive Space Gallery in Oklahoma. Her work has been featured on the cover of numerous literary journals, and her painting "Pretty Mouth" is cover art for the book, This Strange Garment, by Nicole Callihan (Terrapin Press, 2023).
As an extension of her artistic practice, Anne founded Carson House Tulsa, a contemporary gallery, studio, and artist residency located on the same property as her studio. Serving as a dynamic salon for art, poetry, education, and community engagement, Carson House hosts life drawing sessions, exhibitions, workshops, and gatherings. While open to all, it unapologetically centers women, offering a space where creative and community work are supported with intention, accessibility, and without pretense.