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Ezra Shales artwork
Ezra Shales
Ezra Shales
 
       
 

I teach art history in relation to the school’s mission of material research. Each class is a hands-on laboratory session, by bringing an artifact to pass around or driving my students out into the broader community. In the overlooked or the ephemeral, one can recuperate both art and history that is worthwhile. My students conduct their own primary research of the built environment, gathering different types of visual evidence and oral histories. In my course Art as Industry, we traveled around Western New York and mapped local manufacturing and definitions of workmanship. What is a sustainable aesthetic practice? What is an ethically designed workplace? What are the emotional values placed on work and workmanship? The course brought students into direct contact with production, as they had the opportunity to meet CEOs and folks on the floor. Talking about work, we also read the writings of Studs Terkel and Eileen Boris for insight. We arrived at a greater appreciation for grinding lenses for satellites, building furniture, and making ceramic tiles. We achieved a more nuanced understanding of where and when we are living.

My courses are challenging and I am demanding of myself and of my students. My strength as a teacher is to spur my class to look beyond the parochialisms of national identities and medium-specific categorization, and to help them find their own interests. My expertise lies in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American and European culture, and my research in the decorative arts (a field I take to be diverse, including design, craft, art, material culture) stresses sensitivity to the nuances of social habits. I also teach and study both historical and modern Native American art. Contemporary production of all types is always on the table: I am alert and interested in the here-and-now.

Topics I am thinking about include cultural hybridity, craft in contemporary industry, and the role of collaboration in education. Ultimately, I hope that my students walk away thinking about the broader context of skill building and the complexities of wicked problems. There is much of the past that deserves to be recuperated, and a future that needs to be built. Art schools serve their students best if they foster a real and deep appreciation of the world and its diversity. For a starter, I have asked students and colleagues for a moratorium on the ridiculously Western philosophical question “Is it art?” I am interested in why, when, where, and how stuff becomes culturally meaningful. What is significant is what I find interesting, be it a cemetery, teacup, or masthead.

Coming soon: the publication of my book, “Made in Newark: Cultivating Industrial Arts and Civic Identity in the Progressive Era" (Rutgers University Press, Spring 2010).


Cover design by Doug Clouse. Detail of Hugo B. Froehlich Memorial Art Education Window, 1927, Collection of The Newark Museum. Manufactured by J. and R. Lamb Studios, designed by Katharine Lamb Tait, New York, N.Y. Glass, lead; 64 × 35 in. Gift of the Manual Training Teachers of Newark, 1927. Collection of the Newark Museum (27.1451).

“Ezra Shales' is a gem of a contribution that identified the craft of the factory worker - a hugely under-researched field of inquiry”.

Prof. Mike Press, Chair of Design Policy within Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee.

(Thank you for the compliment, Mike, and apologies for my immodest propaganda. Of course, Mike rightly pointed out at the conference that I was only quoting commonsense articles written thirty years ago by David Pye, Raphael Samuel, and Harry Braverman.)

“Neocraft Conference,” 29 November 2007
(http://craftresearch.blogspot.com/2007/11/neocraft-conference.html).

Podcasts are available at the Neocraft website (www.neocraft.ca)

neocraft gif

 

 
 

Ezra Shales, PhD

Assistant Professor, Art History & Theory University Office tel. 607 871-2427
 
 


 
 

Education

  • Ph.D., Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design and Culture. Degree conferred May 2007
    Dissertation title: John Cotton Dana and the Business of Enlightening Newark: “Progressive” Applied Art at the Newark Public Library and Museum, 1902-29
  • M.F.A. in Painting, Hunter College, May 1996
  • B.A. in Latin and Greek, with Honors, College of Letters, Wesleyan University, May 1991

Publications

  • "Made in Newark: Cultivating Industrial Arts and Civic Identity in the Progressive Era" (Rutgers University Press, Spring 2010)
  • Decadent Plumbers’ Porcelain’: Craft and Modernity in Ceramic Sanitary Ware, (article in process)
  • “The Artistic Librarian,” Fine Art Connoisseur vol. 6, no. 4 (August 2009): 57-60
  • “Toying with Design Reform: Henry Cole and Instructive Play for Children,” Journal of Design History vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2009)
  • “You in Between,” exhibition catalogue for Anders Ruhwald, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, UK
  • “Tools Are Like Songs,” Studio Potter vol. 36, no. 2 (Summer 2008): 23-6. (pdf)
  • Critic’s Corner,”“Technophilic Craft,” American Craft vol. 68, no. 2 (April/May 2008): 78-80.
  • “Celadon Refraction,” essay in Wayne Higby -- EarthCloud, with authors Mary Drach McInnes and Helen W. Drutt English, Arnoldsche, 2008. (pdf)
  • “Matter Out of Place: Notes on Experiential Learning in a Studio Foundation Program,” in exhibition catalogue John Wood: On the Edge of Clear Meaning, ed. Nathan Lyons, with authors David Levi Strauss and William Johnson, Steidl, 2008. (pdf)
  • The Interventionists,” “Learning from New Jersey,” “Social Life of Pots,” Book reviews forthcoming in the Journal of Material Culture
  • “Insignificant Forms” catalogue essay in We Float in Space and Cannot Perceive the New Order, Anders Ruhwald exhibition at Miyako Yoshinaga Art Prospects, New York 2007
  • “Decorative Arts” in The Material Culture of American Life: An Encyclopedia, Helen Sheumaker and Shirley Wajda, editors, ABC-Clio Press, 2007
  • Exhibition review, Design Issues 22: 3 (Summer 2006) of SAFE: Design Takes on Risk at the Museum of Modern Art
  • Wedgwood and Derby entries, Vasemania exhibition catalog, Yale University Press, 2004
  • Book review, The Great Exhibitor: The Life and Work of Henry Cole (2003) by Elizabeth Bonython and Anthony Burton, Studies in the Decorative Arts 12: 1 (Fall 2004)
  • Catalog essay, Sight Mapping exhibition, Konsthallen-Bohuslans Museum, Uddevalla and Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, 2002
  • Catalog essay, Dan Walsh: Eighty Paintings, Paula Cooper Gallery, 2001
  • Catalog essay, Horse Tales: American Images and Icons, 1800 - 2000, exhibition at the Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY, 2001
  • “John DiFasio,” American Ceramics 13: 2 (May 1999)
    “Sample Sale,” cover article, Review Magazine 3: 11 (1 March 1998)
    “Making Art and Matching Up Against Deep Blue,” Review Magazine 2: 19 (Summer 1998)
  • “Coming to America,” Review Magazine 2: 17 (1 June 1997)
  • “Ginsberg,” cover article, Review Magazine 2: 18 (15 April 1997)
  • “Scenic Overpass,” Review Magazine 2: 16 (15 May 1997)
  • “The Opiate of Memory: Photographs,” Review Magazine 2: 13 (1 April 1997)
  • “Picturing the Pictures of the Holocaust,” Review Magazine 2: 12 (15 March 1997)

Curatorial Work

  • Curator of the exhibition, Horse Tales: American Images and Icons, 1800 - 2000, with Susan Edwards, Katonah Museum of Art, NY, October - December 2001
  • Curator of “Space for Rent,” non-profit contemporary art gallery, Brooklyn, NY 1996 - 1997

Employment and Teaching Experience

  • Assistant Professor, New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, September 2005 - Present
  • Visiting Assistant Professor, New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, September 2004 - May 2005
  • Teaching Assistant, Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design and Culture, September 2003 - May 2004
  • Adjunct Faculty, Parsons School of Design, September 2002 - May 2004
  • Director of Education, The Katonah Museum of Art, 1999 - 2001
  • Museum Educator, Director of Gallery/Studio Program, Brooklyn Museum, 1997 - 1998
  • Art History Instructor, Parsons School of Design, Higher Education Opportunity Program, 1996 - 1997
  • Drawing Instructor, Parsons School of Design, 1997
  • Independent Photography Dealer, 1995 - 1999
  • Art Teacher, New York City Public Schools, L.E.A.P., 1995 - 1997
  • Camera Builder and Assistant for Aaron Rose, photographer, 1993 - 1996

Academic Conferences and Presentations

  • “Handmade Utopias,” College Art Association Conference, February 2008
  • “NeoCraft,” Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, November 2007
  • “Teaching Prototypes and Pluralist Processes,” Panel chair and moderator, National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts annual conference, March 2007
  • “Sanitary Ware and Modernity,” Copenhagen Kunstindustrimuseet, and Guldagergaard, International Ceramic Research Center, Skaelskør, Denmark, August 2006
  • “Dana’s Culture of Work and Play,” Keynote address, Newark Free Public Library Symposium “Celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Birth of John Cotton Dana,” July 2006
  • “Ceramic Art and Technology circa 1915: Charles Fergus Binns and the Alfred Experiment in Context,” American Art Pottery Association Annual Conference, April 2006
  • Invited participant, 2006 Conference of the Center for the Study of the Domestic Interior, Royal College of Art, hosted by Bard Graduate Center, April 2006
  • “John Cotton Dana’s Advertisements for a Modern Museum,” Newark Museum, February 2006
  • “The 1909 Hudson-Fulton Catalogues: Codifying Americana in Typography” in session
  • “Reconsidering the Catalogue,” College Art Association Conference, February 2005
  • “Arts and Crafts Influences and Progressive Politics at the Newark Museum and Newark Library, circa 1900 - 1920,” at Winterthur Museum’s Symposium “Rethinking Decorative Arts and Design, 1850 - 1920,” October 2004
  • “Branding the American Museum circa 1900 - 1920: Fashioning a Graphic Identity for the Metropolitan Museum of Art,” at the 13th Annual Symposium on the Decorative Arts: Renaissance through Modern, sponsored by the Masters Program in the History of Decorative Art offered by the Cooper-Hewitt and Parsons, April 2004
  • “Emphasizing Communication and Community: Artists Who Use the Strategies of Museum Education,” New York City Art Teachers Association/UFT Art Education Conference, November 1999

Exhibitions and Installations of Art Work

  • “Open House: Working in Brooklyn,” The Brooklyn Museum, April - August 2004
  • “Cosmic Views of Queens, An Arcade Project,” Queens Museum of Art Satellite Gallery at the Bulova Center, September 2002 - April 2003
  • “Measure To Scale,” installation on 92 Allen Street façade, NY, NY, May 2001 - May 2002
  • “Looking for Mr. Fluxus,” Art in General, NY, NY, October - December 2001
  • “Reflections on Space: Alejandra Munizaga, Ben Pranger and Ezra Shales,” Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, SUNY Old Westbury, NY, September - October 2001
  • “Our Perceptions/Urban Reality,” Artists Space, NY, NY, May - July 2001
  • “A Common Denominator,” Eldridge Street Project, NY, NY, October 1999 - January 2000
  • “The Nominal Home,” Beach 43rd Street, The Far Rockaways, NY, January 1998 - February 2000
  • “Erratic Errands,” Archibald Arts, NY, NY, Summer 2000
  • “Why Pay Y2K?,” Trans Hudson, NY, NY, December 1999 - January 2000
  • “Hidden Agenda,” Bernadette Salvage, Brooklyn, NY, April 1999
  • “Seeing Money,” The Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, December 1998
  • “Fresh Blood: 13 Young Artists,” Archibald Arts, NY, NY, October 1998
  • “14 Days - A Salon,” ROOM, NY, NY, July 1996

Bibliography and Reviews of Work as an Artist

  • “Open House: Working in Brooklyn,” Sculpture 24: 1 (January - February 2005)
  • “Day Care Kids March for tribute to WWI Vet,” Joyce Shelby, Daily News
    (18 January 2005)
  • Looking for Mr. Fluxus – Following in the Footsteps of George Maciunas, by Raimundas Malaauskas and Grady Turner (New York: Art in General, 2002)
  • Time Out New York 371 (7-14 November 2002)
  • Voices Choices Summer Arts, The Village Voice (5 June 2001)
  • “’Til Evaporation Do Us Part,” catalogue published by Archibald Arts, NY, 2001
  • “Reimagining Eldridge Street,” The Forward 52: 31,265 (3 December 1999)
  • “Ezra Shales,” Review Magazine 5: 25 (1 December 1999)
  • “House With a View,” New York Newsday (2 July 1998) “Open-Air Sculpture With a ZIP Code,” The New York Times (20 June 1998)

Fellowships and Prizes

  • National Endowment for the Humanities, Alfred University, 2007
  • Windgate Fellowship, Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design, 2007
  • International Fellowship for Faculty Development, Alfred University 2007
  • Ph.D. Research and Travel Grant, Bard Graduate Center, 2004
  • Scholarship, Victorian Summer School, London, UK, 2004
  • Connecticut Ceramic Circle Award, 2003
  • Scholarship, Victorian Summer School, Newport, RI, 2003
  • Peter Jay Sharp Foundation Scholarship, Bard Graduate Center, 2003 - 2004
  • Peter Jay Sharp Foundation Scholarship, Bard Graduate Center, 2002 - 2003
  • Eugenie Prendergast Travel and Research Grant, Bard Graduate Center, 2002
  • Willowbridge Associates Fellowship, Bard Graduate Center, 2001 - 2002
  • Smack Mellon Studios Studio Fellowship, Spring - Summer 2001
  • Yaddo Residency and Fellowship, Saratoga Springs, NY, December 1998
  • Center for Humanities Fellow, Wesleyan University, January 1990 - May 1991
  • Spinney Prize for Excellence in Ancient Greek, May 1991
  • Davenport Grant for Travel and Study Abroad, Wesleyan University, June 1990
 
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