Jay Coogan received a BA from Brown University and an MFA from Hunter College. He taught sculpture and was department chair, dean of fine arts, associate provost, and provost at Rhode Island School of Design. He followed that becoming president of Minneapolis College of Art and Design and president of IYRS School of Technology and Trades.
His work has been shown at numerous museums including the Fort Worth Art Museum, Indianapolis Art Museum, Jacksonville Art Museum, Neuberger Museum and Newport Art Museum. He has also shown at Monique Knowlton, Hal Bromm, Archetype, and Helander galleries in New York. Other gallery shows include Virginia Lynch, Lenore Gray, Pritam and Eames, Mattingly-Baker, Grimshaw-Gudewicz, Brown University, UMass Amherst, University of Maryland, University of South Florida.
Public and private commissions include Fidelity Investments North Smithfield, RI., Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, Boston, MA, the Frisoli Youth Center, Cambridge, MA, the City of Green Bay, Green Bay, WI., and Hasbro Industries, Pawtucket, RI.
He has received grants from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment of the Arts.
Walking the Yard 2016
Encaustic 25″ x 19″ including frame
Artist Statement
My career has spanned making sculptures, furniture, drawings, paintings, large-scale installations, and many other things. In addition, I taught sculpture at RISD and was Dean of Fine Arts, Associate Provost, and Provost. I was later president of Minneapolis College of Art and Design and IYRS School of Technology and Trades in Newport, RI. I became interested in chickens as one of many subjects I pursued during my career when living in Prince Edward Island in the early 1970s. When I moved from there to Middletown, RI, I raised chickens. In addition to chickens, crows have been depicted in my art over a long period of time. They are two very intelligent birds. Chickens were domesticated very early by mankind, and crows remain free but closely attached to every human community on Earth. This series equated the condition of chickens to that of captives and prisoners. Chickens develop a pecking order, which is much like the humans they interact with. They can be submissive or fierce and seem frightened easily, but all those reactions are conditioned by their instincts to survive.
Additional Info
Artist Instagram: @jay_coogan
Part of Growing the NetWorks
This artist was selected by a past NetWorks Rhode Island participant as part of Growing the NetWorks — a 2025 exhibition presented by WaterFire Providence, at the WaterFire Arts Center, celebrating peer-nominated artists from across Rhode Island. Learn more at waterfire.org/growingthenetworks
Highlighting the work of selected artists who have played vital roles in shaping the contemporary visual arts community in Rhode Island. This collection of brief video portraits provides a window into the lives, practices, and cultural contributions of professional artists.
