Ann Agee A’81

Ann Agee (b. 1959) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Since her residency at the Kohler Arts Center in 1991, Agee’s practice has focused on replicating objects by hand, a process employed to simulate mass production and engage ambiguous delineations between fine art, design, and craft; histories of cultural appropriation and exchange; and the range of women’s lived experiences. Alongside Kathy Butterly, Arlene Shechet, and Annabeth Rosen, Agee is a leading member in a pioneering generation of feminist ceramicists. 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:  Bad Girls (1994), The New Museum, NY; Dirt on Delight (2009), Institute of Contemporary Art, PA and the Walker Art Center, MN; and Conversations in Clay (2008), Katonah Art Museum, NY. She has 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 collection of notable institutions including The Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY; The Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA; The RISD Art Museum, RI; The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; The Henry Art Museum in Seattle, WA; The Kohler Art Center in Sheboygan, WI; and The Museum of Contemporary Art in 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 in manifesto of fragility, the 16th Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art, Lyon, France. 

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

  • 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
  • Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Miami, FL
  • Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
  • 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

 

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