Norman Akers (Osage Nation of Oklahoma) was born in Fairfax, OK. Akers served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the School of Art and Design, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, IL and Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK.

Akers has had solo exhibitions in galleries across the nation and has participated in numerous group exhibitions including “Who Stole the Tee Pee?” (National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, New York, NY).

His paintings are included in numerous collections including the Gilcrease Museum (Tulsa, OK), Rockwell Museum of Western Art (Corning, NY), Heard Museum, (Phoenix, AZ), Eiteljorg Museum (Indianapolis, IN), Institute of American Indian Arts Museum (Santa Fe, NM) and US Embassy, Yerevan, Armenia.

In 1999, he was a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant. The same year he received a merit award at the Oklahoma Painting and Drawing Biennial V.