Ann Agee, 2021
Ann Agee (b. 1959) is a leading member in a pioneering generation of feminist ceramicists who have brought the art form to the forefront of contemporary discourses on sculpture. Through her practice, Agee engages ambiguous delineations between fine art, design, and craft; histories of cultural appropriation and exchange; and the range of women’s lived experiences. She earned her BFA from the Cooper Union School of Art in 1981 and her MFA from the Yale School of Art in 1986. Her work has been included in notable group exhibitions, including: 1994’s Bad Girls, the New Museum, NY; 2009’s Dirt on Delight, the Institute of Contemporary Art, PA and the Walker Art Center, MN; and 2008’s Conversations in Clay, the Katonah Art Museum, NY. This year, she was honored with Cooper Union’s Augustus Saint-Gaudens Award, previously having received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, among others. Her works are included in the permanent collections of notable institutions including the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; the RISD Art Museum, Providence, RI; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; the Henry Art Museum, Seattle, WA; the Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, WI; Peréz Art Museum, Miami, FL; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL. Agee’s work was exhibited as part of To Begin Again: Artists and Childhood at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA and manifesto of fragility, the 16th Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art, Lyon, France. Agee’s work is currently on view in Lunch Break: Arts/Industry in Between at John Michael Kohler Arts Center through May 2025. Her solo exhibition with the Currier Museum, Manchester, NH will open in February 2025.
Ann Agee
b. 1959
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY
Education
1986
MFA, Yale School of Art
1981
BFA, The Cooper Union School of Art
Solo Exhibitions
2021
Madonnas and Hand Warmers, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
2020
Madonna of the Girl Child, P·P·O·W, New York, NY (online)
2015
Domestic Translations, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
2012
The Kitchen Sink, Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2011
Ann Agee, Lux Art, Encinitas, CA
2010
Ann Agee, Rules of the Pattern, Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2007
Ann Agee, Virginia Commonwealth University Gallery, VA
2005
Boxing in the Kitchen, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
2001
Ann Agee, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
2000
Ann Agee, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1998
Ann Agee, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1996
Quotidian, Yoshii Gallery, New York, NY
1994
Factory Work, Arena Gallery New York, NY
1993
Ann Agee, The John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
1991
Contradictions in Clay, Ann Nathan Gallery Chicago, IL
Select Group Exhibitions
2024
Lunch Break: Arts/Industry in Between, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
All the Small Things, Marinaro, New York, NY
2023
Holding, Van Doren Waxter, New York, NY
Unrequited Love, Natalie Karg, New York, NY
2022
To Begin Again: Artists and Childhood, ICA Boston, Boston, MA
Manifesto of Fragility, Biennale de Lyon 2022, Lyon, France
Weeds and Spores, curated by Faye Hirsche, Alexandre Gallery, New York, NY
2021
Collection Focus: Our Beginnings Never Know Our Ends, MOCA North Miami, FL
2020
Forms Fired, Shoshonna Wayne, Los Angeles, CA (online)
The Life of Things, Shoshana Wayne, Los Angeles, CA
2019
New Faces, Shoshana Wayne, Los Angeles, CA
2018
The Provisional City, Spazio Murat, Bari, Italy
Pageant of Inconceivables, curated by Portia Munson and Katharine Umsted, The Kleinart/James Center for the Arts, Woodstock, NY
Molding/Mark-Making: Ceramic Artists and Their Drawings, curated by Margaret Mathews-Berenson and Allison Peller, Dorsky Gallery, Long Island City, NY
2015
(self-contained), Ventana244, curated by Nina Felshin, Brooklyn, NY
My Blue China, Bernardaud, Limoges, France
Human Moments, Cade Tompkins Projects, Providence, RI
2014
The Human Condition: The Stephen and Pamela Hootkin Collection, Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
The Amusing Style, Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York, NY
Nature’s Knot, Luise Ross Gallery, New York, NY
Arts Industry Residency, 40 year anniversary exhibition, John Micheal Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
2013
Interior Spaces, DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY
Print Residency Exhibition, Gowanus Studio Space, Brooklyn, NY
New Blue and White, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
2012
The Female Gaze: Women Artists making Their World, Lee Alter Collection, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Paved Paradise, DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY
Playing House, with Anne Chu, Mary Lucier, and Betty Woodman, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
2011
New Wallworks, Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, MD
2010
Interactions, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philidelphia, PA
The Figure - Contemporary Works in the Collection, RISD Art Museum, Providence, RI
2009
Dirt on Delight - Impulses That Form Clay, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA; Walker Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN
Princeton Visual Art Faculty Exhibition, Paul Robeson Center, Princeton Arts Council, Princeton, NJ
Room Unoccupied, Fordham University, Bronx, NY
2008
Conversations in Clay, Katonah Art Museum, Katonah, NY
2007
Domestic Dieties, Garth Clarck Gallery, New York, NY
2006
Bong, Leslie Tonkonow Gallery, New York, NY
2005
City Arts, The Center for Architecture, New York, NY
A Tale to Tell, The John Michael Kohler Arts Center, WI
2004
Standing Room Only, Williamson Gallery, Scripps College, CA
Conceptual Realism, Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2003
Corporeal Identity-Body Language Fur Angewandte, Kunst Museum, Frankfurt, Germany; Chicago Anteneum, Chicago, IL,; Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY
Family Ties, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA
On the Wall, Rhode Island School of Design Art Museum, Providence, RI
2002
What’s the Use? , J P S Gallery University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI
Sex Pots: The Erotic Life of Clay, San Francisco State University Fine Arts Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2001
The Shock of the Mundane, Henry Art Museum, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
2000
Color and Fire: Defining Moments in Studio Ceramics 1950 to 2000, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
1999
Pattern, James Graham & Sons Gallery, New York, NY
Domestic Transformations, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY
1998
Ordinary/Extraordinary, Johnson County Community College of Art, Kansas City, MO
1997
Pool, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Ornament and Landscape: On the Nature of Artifice, Apex Gallery, New York, NY
The Handmade Tale, The Robbins Center for Graduate Studies at The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
1996
Millennium Eve Dress, The Fabric Workshop, Philadelphia, PA
1995
Configura 2, Dialogue of Cultures Erfurt 1995, Erfurt, Germany
1994
Bad Girls, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY
Select Public Collections
Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
New York Historical Society, New York, NY
Henry Art Museum, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Museum of Sex, New York, NY
John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX
Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Miami, FL
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Peréz Art Museum, Miami, FL
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Grants, Fellowships, and Awards
2024
Augustus Saint-Gaudens Award
2012
Anonymous Was A Woman Award
2011
John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship
2006
Artists Invite Artists, Residency, (Beverly Semmes, Byron Kim, Ann Agee) Watershed Center for Ceramic Art
1997
The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award
1993
NEA International Exchange Fellowship, Mexico
1992
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
Wisconsin Arts Board Grant
Kohler Company Artist in Residence
1990
Empire State Craft Alliance Grant
1989
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
1986
Ely Harwood Schless Memorial Fund Prize, Yale School of Art
Select Bibliography
2022
Erickson, Ruth, and Jeffrey De Blois. “Gestures of Care.” To Begin Again: Artists and Childhood, The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston and DelMonico Books, New York, 2022, pp. 134–139.
2017
Agee, Ann. Catalogue 2017. Agee Manufacturing Company, 2017.
2015
Normile, Nora. Sally Agee: 60 Years of Making Art. Edited by Ann Agee.
1994
“Lake Michigan Bathroom, 1992.” Bad Girls, The MIT Press, Cambridge , MA, 1994, p. 82.
Ann Agee
Red Hot Madonna, 2024
porcelain slip and ceramic stain on white stoneware
60 1/2 x 22 x 24 ins.
153.7 x 55.9 x 61 cm
Ann Agee
Willowy Silhouette Madonna, 2023
stoneware with colored slip and porcelain slip
32 1/4 x 23 1/2 x 15 1/2 ins.
81.9 x 59.7 x 39.4 cm
Ann Agee
Green Dress Madonna with Flip-Flops and Earrings, 2021
red earthenware with white slip and glaze
35 1/2 x 10 x 14 ins.
90.2 x 25.4 x 35.6 cm
Ann Agee
Double Pink Madonna, 2021
pink-stained porcelain with glaze and stoneware with pink slip and glaze
12 1/2 x 23 3/4 x 10 1/4 ins.
31.8 x 60.3 x 26 cm
Ann Agee
Hand Warmers series, 2016-ongoing
variety of clays, glazes, slips, and firing temperatures
dimensions variable
Ann Agee
John Soane Breakfast Parlor, 2011
acrylic on Thai Mulberry paper
164 1/2 x 184 1/4 ins.
417.8 x 468 cm
The organizers of Art Basel Paris 2024 could not have dreamed of better weather as the fair unveiled its first edition at the Grand Palais yesterday in a balmy, almost summery climate.
On the heels of a bustling month of art fairs in London and Paris, the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) ushered in its 35th edition of The Art Show in New York. This year’s fair, running from November 2nd to 5th at the historic Park Avenue Armory, features 78 ADAA member galleries and includes solo artist presentations.
This year, which marks the 35th year of the fair and the 130th anniversary of Henry Street Settlement, many galleries chose to bring solo booths by artists, providing opportunities for viewers to immerse themselves in the artists on view, while also providing a bit more scholarship and in-depth reading of each artist, and Whitewall picked its five favorite solo presentations.
Let’s be honest: On a best bathrooms list, no one wants to be number two.
‘Collectors’ journeys into the homes of fledgling and seasoned art buyers from across the globe. The ongoing series offers an intimate spotlight on a range of personal collections from hobbyist ephemera to blue-chip artworks — all the while dissecting an individual’s specific taste, at-home curation and purchase trajectory.
In recent years, we’ve witnessed renewed momentum surrounding spirituality in the art world. At museums, late artists who dove deeply into mysticism and religion are gaining posthumous attention.
In conjunction with Ann Agee's Madonnas and Hand Warmers, P·P·O·W presented a virtual conversation with Agee and Loie Hollowell, moderated by poet Iris Cushing.
P·P·O·W presents Ann Agee’s third solo exhibition “Madonnas and Hand Warmers” through July 23 2021.
Funky and elegant by turn, Ann Agee’s ceramic Madonnas testify to an imagination run wild.
For her third solo show at PPOW, Ann Agee offers works from the fictional “Agee Manufacturing Company”—all handmade ceramic wares that speak to the history of industrial production and factory labor.
