Jacob Ouillette

"Melancholy"	"Joker"	"Red Sky"
Click images for larger view

"My aim in art is counterintuitive to current trends influenced by a consumerist mindset. The mass consumption of goods, ideas, and culture can exclude the consumer from the processes involved in their daily existence. This creates to me a false system of beliefs lacking in human dignity. In my work the interpretation of the meaning is left up to the viewer. At first the paintings seem simple, but they are built up with many layers of paint. These layers hint at a more complicated underlying system capable of possessing metaphysical qualities. If the viewer tries to penetrate these layers in search of an understanding, it will be their own. Without this search there can be no meaning. It is my desire, through my work, to give people the dignity to find meaning within themselves."

1974 - Born in Presque Isle, ME
1988 - First paintings in oil
1992-96 - Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
1995 - Base Gallery, group show, Providence, RI
1995 - "Monsters from the Id," solo show, Benson Hall Gallery, Providence, RI
1996 - Woods Gerry Gallery, Senior Thesis Exhibition, Providence, RI
1997 - Button Factory Studio, Portsmouth, NH
1998 - Brinkman Gallery, group show, North Conway, NH
1998 - Appears in "Disillusion," a documentary video by Mitchell Rosenzweig
1998 - Moves to New York
1999 - Participates in "Arts Under the Bridge," DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY
2000 - The West Space, solo show, New York, NY
2000 - Penn Gallery, group show, Pittsburgh, PA
2002 - Awarded fellowship by Edward F. Albee Foundation
2002 - The East Space, solo show, New York, NY
2002 - Shippenberg University, group show, Shippenberg, PA
2002 - St. John's University, group show, Queens, NY
2002 - RISD Inch x Inch, group show, Arlington, MA

Images © Jacob Ouliette