OVERVIEW

EMILY COLE: Ceramics, Flora & Contemporary Responses places the art of Emily Cole (1843-1913), daughter of Thomas Cole, into conversation with eight internationally-celebrated, 21st-century artists within the Cole family’s historic home and studio.

Emily Cole was an esteemed professional artist in her own right, who painted dynamic botanicals on porcelain and watercolors on paper. She exhibited and sold her art in New York City and the Hudson Valley, received critical acclaim, traveled internationally, studied at the National Academy of Design, and was a founding member in 1892 of the New York Society of Ceramic Arts, an organization that advocated for ceramics to be exhibited in museum galleries.

The exhibition will include the largest display of original painted porcelain and works on paper by Emily Cole ever shown since the 19th century. Her work will be presented alongside, and in conversation with, contemporary works that span ceramics, sculpture, installation, painting, and photography. The contemporary artists are Ann Agee, Jacqueline Bishop, Francesca DiMattio, Valerie Hegarty, Courtney M. Leonard, Jiha Moon, Michelle Sound, and Stephanie Syjuco. 

The exhibition’s curators are Kate Menconeri, Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, Contemporary Art, and Fellowship at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, and Amanda Malmstrom, Associate Curator at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site. The project was developed in conversation with the featured artists and the following advisors: Jenni Sorkin, PhD, Associate Professor of the History of Art and Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara, specializing in contemporary art and material culture; Amy Meyers, PhD, former Director of the Yale Center for British Art, specializing in art and science in the transatlantic world; the artist Kiki Smith; Lisa Sanditz, artist and Bard College teaching faculty; and Nicole Hayes, practicing ceramics teacher and graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. 

#artofemilycole

PRESS RELEASE

PROGRAMS

EXHIBITION OBJECTS – Selection

Once-known photographer, Portrait of Emily Cole, ca. 1876, Thomas Cole National Historic Site Archives

Valerie Hegarty (b. 1967), Emily Cole and Her Father, My Mother and Me (Thomas Cole’s Lake with Dead Trees, Blackberries, Sparrow, and Wallpaper), 2025, canvas, wood, cardboard, paper, wire, glue, air dry clay, foam, acrylics, Courtesy the artist

Emily Cole, Untitled (Peonies), n.d., watercolor and pencil on paper, 11¾ x 10 1/8 in., Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Gift of Edith Cole Silberstein, TC.2002.2.19.45

Jiha Moon, Jangmi, 2021, earthenware, underglaze, glaze, 13 x 5.5 x 5.5 in., JM0061, Derek Eller Gallery

Emily Cole: Ceramics, Flora, and Contemporary Responses is made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Major support is provided by the Gerry Charitable Trust.

The exhibition and publication are also supported by the Wyeth Foundation for American Art; NYSCA/GHHN Conservation Treatment Grant Program administered by Greater Hudson Heritage Network, a program made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; Dr. Lee MacCormick Edwards Charitable Foundation; Jennifer Krieger and Eric Siegel; Felicia Fund; Hickory Foundation; Athens Fine Art Services LLC; Funded in Part by the Maurice D. Hinchey Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area; National Trust Insurance Services, LLC; Bank of Greene County Charitable Fund; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; and the Kindred Spirits Society of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site.