Jane Ashton Sharp

Jane Ashton Sharp is a Professor in the Department of Art History at Rutgers University, where she also serves as Research Curator of the Dodge Collection of Nonconformist Art at the Zimmerli Art Museum. Her work focuses on East-European avant-gardes, Modernisms in former Soviet republics, Global conceptualism, and Post-WWII abstraction.

• Education: Ph.D. and M.A. from Yale University, B.A. from UCLA

Her research and curatorial projects explore intersections of Soviet visual culture, Baltic and Central Asian art, and unofficial Soviet art. Recent work includes the 2024-2025 exhibition Painting to Scale at the Zimmerli Art Museum and a 2022 exhibition at the National Museum of Estonian Art. She is currently completing a book on Thaw era abstraction during her residency at the Institute for Advanced Study (2025-26).

Key publications include the award-winning Russian Modernism between East and West (2006) and Thinking Pictures: The Visual Field of Moscow Conceptualism (2016). Her scholarly contributions span topics like Byzantine art as method, Ecocritical interpretations of Soviet dystopias, and transnational Cold War art practices.

• Scientific Awards:
  • 2025-26 Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship
  • 2013-14 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow
  • 2007 Robert Motherwell Prize

She teaches undergraduate courses like Art and Power: The Visual and Literary Culture of the Soviet Century and graduate seminars in Global Conceptualisms and Curatorial Training.