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1959Born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
EDUCATION
1977-1981BFA, Cooper Union, New York, New York
1984-1986MFA, School of Art, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
APPRENTICESHIPS AND RESIDENCIES
1991, 1992Resident Artist, Arts/Industry Residency Program, Kohler Company, Sheboygan, Wisconsin
2006Artists Invite Artists, Residency, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Newcastle, Maine
PRIMARY WORK EXPERIENCE
2005Faculty, Hunter College, New York, New York
2006-2010Faculty, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
BIOGRAPHY
Ann Agee’s work is a narrative exploration of scenes from everyday life, both the glamorous and gritty. Her extensive body of work using blue glaze, or cobalt-blue stain on either a porcelain or vitreous china ground, is influenced by Delftware and Staffordshire transferware pottery.
Agee retains the all over decorative influences of these wares but replaces the bucolic country and genre scenes with images of gas stations, civic buildings and public works. Agee’s work challenges the traditional notion that decorative or applied arts are inferior to fine arts.
A major influence on her work was the Arts/Industry Residency Program at Kohler Co. in Sheboygan (1991 and 1992). While there she studied the people and scenery of Sheboygan County filling her sketchbook with images of daily life. In 1998, Agee was commissioned by the Kohler Arts center to create her first major installation, a blue and white men’s washroom. The images represent actual places in Sheboygan County ranging from views of Lake Michigan to a water treatment plant.
Although first appearing to be transferware, Agee reports that at Kohler she worked on greenware (unfired clay) tiles that had been prepared by painting white slip onto the clay. The motifs were then painted with a cobalt-like stain fired at a high temperature, glazed and fired once more at a lower temperature. (Correspondence with the artist December, 2014)
Agee completed several other large blue and white installations. Lake Michigan Bathroom, for example, with scenes of various uses of water was created for “Bad Girls,” a 1994 exhibition at the New Museum in New York City. Other works include a series combining hand painted wallpaper with pure white figurines, first exhibited in 1996. She created the Agee Manufacturing Co. Winter Catalogue in 2009, a shop window installation filled with white porcelain figurines referencing 18th century mold cast figurines.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, New York
The Henry Art Museum, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), California
Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, Florida
Museum of Sex, New York, New York
New York Historical Society, New York, New York
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Rhode Island School of Design, Museum of Art, Providence, Rhode Island
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Arts/Industry: Collaboration and Revelation. Sheboygan, WI: John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Inc., 2014.
Epstein, Edward M. “‘…That Women Tend To Make’: The Female Gaze at the Pennsylvania Academy.” ArtCritical (February 6, 2013).
Fairbrother, Trevor J. Family Ties: A Contemporary Perspective. Salem, MA: Peabody Essex Museum, 2004.
Hirsch, Fay. “Unalienated Labor: Q&A with Ann Agee.” Art in America (October 9, 2012).
Koplos, Janet. “Ann Agee at PPOW.” Art In America (July 2002).
Lauria, Jo. Color and Fire, Defining Moments in Studio Ceramics 1950 to 2000. Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2000.
Lauria, Jo, ed. Standing Room Only: The Scripps 60th Ceramic Annual. Santa Barbara, CA: Perpetua Press, 2004.
Mathieu, Paul. Sex Pots: Eroticism in Ceramics. London: A&C Black, 2003.
Schwartz, Judith. Confrontational Ceramics: The Artist as Social Critic. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania, 2008.
Smith, Roberta. “Crucible of Creativity, Stoking Earth into Art.” The New York Times, March 1, 2009.
Tucker, Marcia. Bad Girls. New York, NY: The New Museum, 1994.
Neumann, Ilse, and Ursula and Janet Kardon. Conversations in Clay. Katonah, NY: Katonah Museum of Art, 2008.
Zimmerman, David. “A Good Time with Bad Girls.” USA Today, February 27, 1994.
CV or RESUME: Click Here to Download
Source: www.annageestudio.com
CV or RESUME: Click Here to Download
Source: Elaine Levin Archives, University of Southern California
WEBSITE(S):
"ann" written over "agee" in cursive with date next to it, written in colorful ink at the foot of the piece.
"Ann Agee" in cursive as part of the top line of a rectangle, with date underneath in blue ink at the foot of the piece.
"AGEE" in printed uppercase letters with "MFGC12" underneath in blue ink at the foot of the piece.
Citation: "The Marks Project." Last modified February 11, 2024. http://www.themarksproject.org/marks/agee