When James L. Russell held his First Annual Exhibition of Paintings by New Albany Artists at the Art Shop in 1914, Fred Shrader was one of six artists chosen. At that time Shrader was employed in a New Albany laundry, where he started out as a bookkeeper and eventually came to own the operation. He exhibited in Art Shop and Wonderland Way shows in the 1920s and 1930s, and in various other venues in the 1950s and 1960s. He was one of the artists featured in the 2013 Artists of the Wonderland Way exhibition at the Carnegie Center for Art & History in New Albany.