Since the early 1990s, Ann Agee (American, b. 1959) has been celebrated for her ability to infuse ceramics with complex narratives that challenge the familiar, transforming the domestic into a space for critical reflection. This exhibition, her first institutional solo show in New England, takes its title from one of Agee’s most significant bodies of work, Madonna of the Girl Child.

The series offers a contemporary feminist reinterpretation of the Madonna and Child theme by depicting the child as a girl, rather than a boy, subverting long-standing gender norms in religious art and Christian iconography. The exhibition at the Currier Museum of Art features recent and newly created porcelain works from this series, specially produced for the museum. These works continue Agee’s exploration of gender, power, and maternal identity, reframing iconic religious imagery through a feminist lens.

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. In 2024, 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; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; RISD Art Museum, Providence, RI; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Henry Art Museum, Seattle, WA; Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, WI; Peréz Art Museum, Miami, FL; and 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.