Jolicoeur awarded competitive RISCA fellowship in painting

salvetoday Posted On March 4, 2019
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Ernest Jolicoeur, assistant professor of art and director of the Dorrance H. Hamilton Gallery, has been awarded a highly competitive $5,000 fellowship by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA) and General Assembly of the State of Rhode Island to support his studio work in painting.

As a recipient, selections from Jolicoeur’s ongoing “Erased Landscape” series are included in the 2019 RISCA Fellowship Exhibition at the Warwick Center for the Arts, which runs through Sunday, March 31. Jolicoeur’s work in this series features composite images of place shaped by layers of memory, observation and imagination.

Additional works from “Erased Landscapes” can also be seen in the 2019 Wheaton Biennial: Brush Coat Cover at Wheaton College’s Beard and Weil Galleries in Norton, Massachusetts through Friday, March 8.

“I am honored and grateful to have my artistic contributions recognized by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts in 2019,” Jolicoeur said. “RISCA’s endorsement is truly impactful, not only on the development of my current work as a painter, but on the growth and livelihood of the arts statewide.”

Jolicoeur describes his approach to painting and drawing as a filtration process that enables him to hold onto experiences beyond the reach of photography. “My images provide paths to locations lost,” he says. “They serve as monuments of lived experience. Each is a composite of reflections and refractions. Each points to a place where the natural and built environment intersect, a place that sustains memory, imagination and image growth.”

Jolicoeur, who has been teaching at Salve Regina since 2007, has a BFA from Rhode Island College and an MFA from Yale University School of Art. Among his numerous honors and awards, he was a 2017 recipient of the Antone Academic Excellence Award for Special Projects and received a 2014 fellowship in drawing and a 2013 merit fellowship in drawing from RISCA.

RISCA Fellowships are unrestricted awards that encourage the creative development of artists by enabling them to set aside time to pursue their work and achieve specific creative and career goals. One $5,000 fellowship and one $1,000 merit fellowship are awarded in each of 13 disciplines each fiscal year. The awards, selected through an anonymous panel review of submitted work samples, are based solely on artistic merit and are highly competitive.

The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts serves as a catalyst for the advancement, appreciation and promotion of excellence in the arts, by encouraging leadership, participation and education in the arts for all Rhode Islanders.