Press Release // New Hampshire Charitable Foundation Artist Advancement Grant Exhibit

3S Artspace is pleased to announce the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation Artist Advancement Exhibit. Featuring works by 2025 award recipient Jihye Han and finalists Isabella Rotman and Cozette Russell, the exhibit will run from June 4 through July 26, 2026.

An Opening Reception with the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation will be held on Thursday, June 4, from 6 to 8 pm, with an opportunity to meet the artists. Both the exhibit and reception are free and open to the public.

The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation’s Piscataqua Region Artist Advancement Grant provides a financial award of up to $25,000 each year to a Seacoast-area visual artist or craftsperson to promote their artistic growth. The Artist Advancement Grant reflects the Foundation’s long-term commitment to supporting the arts, and it recognizes the importance of artists who live and work in the region and help to make it such a vital community. By providing meaningful and substantive support, this grant enables artists to advance their work and careers while remaining in the area, mutually benefiting individual artists and the region as a whole. Recipients are selected based on work that demonstrates an artistic vision, a strong commitment to their discipline and a plan for utilizing the grant to further their artistic development.

“Working artists are at the heart of what makes the Piscataqua region such a vibrant place to live,” said Simon Delekta, Vice President of Community Engagement and Impact at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. “This grant program exists because generous people understood that supporting local artists enriches the cultural life of the whole community.”

The honoree in this year’s exhibition is 2025 Artist Advancement Grant recipient Jihye Han. Based in Exeter, New Hampshire, Han brings a personal and culturally resonant practice to the exhibition. Trained in sculpture and ceramics, with a BFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and an MFA from the University of North Texas, she has gained national recognition, including honors from Clay Houston and the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts.

Han’s work merges clay and hand-building techniques with layered painting, creating textured forms that draw from memory, personal history, and Korean cultural traditions. Influenced by Minhwa, traditional Korean folk art, her pieces explore the complexities of cultural blending between South Korea and the United States with themes of home, identity, and belonging. Grounded in a belief in art’s power to transcend cultural boundaries, her practice invites viewers into a space of empathy and shared human connection.

"As both an artist and educator, the Artist Advancement Grant has given me the freedom to dream bigger and expand my practice in meaningful ways,” said Jihye Han. “It has allowed me to create more ambitious ceramic installations, invest in new tools and materials, explore new processes, and experiment with larger-scale work. Most importantly, it has provided the time and support to develop projects that reflect themes of identity, migration, motherhood, and the idea of home while inviting deeper emotional connection and dialogue with viewers. This opportunity has helped me grow not only as an artist, but also as a person"

Also featured in the exhibition is grant finalist Cozette Russell, a New Hampshire-based artist whose sculptural practice reimagines the possibilities of photographic media. Russell has exhibited widely at major institutions, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Wexner Center for the Arts, and Harvard University. She has also previously exhibited at 3S Artspace.

Using photographic processes as a foundation, Russell engages in acts of cutting, layering, projecting, and rephotographing, transforming singular exposures into complex, time-based objects. Her practice centers on the body while addressing frameworks of feminism, disability, and labor. She incorporates hand-punched braille into photographic surfaces, expanding the accessibility of visual art and inviting alternative modes of engagement through touch and reading.

The exhibition also includes work by grant finalist Isabella Rotman, an Eisner and Ignatz Award–nominated cartoonist and illustrator based in South Berwick, Maine. Rotman’s multidisciplinary practice spans comics, illustration, and participatory experiences, often exploring themes of the ocean, intimacy, solitude, and the human body.

Rotman’s work in the exhibit is an immersive and interactive body of work rooted in tarot symbolism and practices of self-reflection. Titled This Might Help Oracle, each illustrated card isolates and reinterprets symbols from her companion tarot deck, This Might Hurt Tarot, inviting viewers to consider meaning through both individual imagery and broader symbolic systems. Her work on view also offers visitors the opportunity to engage directly with the deck through personal readings, creating a space for introspection, connection, and dialogue between artwork and viewer.

“We’re excited to continue our partnership with the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and the Artist Advancement Grant team this year,” said Beth Falconer, Executive Director of 3S Artspace. “This year’s exhibition draws you into each artist’s distinct language of form and storytelling. From ceramic works rooted in cultural memory, to tactile photographic sculpture, to richly symbolic illustration, we’re excited to celebrate the remarkable range and talent of these artists and the vital role they play in our creative community.”

Don't miss the opportunity to explore the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation Artist Advancement Grant Exhibit in the Gallery at 3S Artspace.

For more information about the exhibition and related events, visit www.3sarts.org.

• Gallery exhibition and supporting event dates:
• New Hampshire Charitable Foundation Artist Advancement Grant Exhibit, works by 2025 award recipient Jihye Han, and finalists Isabella Rotman and Cozette Russell
• Exhibit: June 4 - July 26, 2026 / Learn More

• Free and open to the public

• Opening Reception / Meet the Artists:
• Thursday, June 4, 2026
• 6 - 8pm
• Free to attend / Learn More
• Generously supported by our year-round lead sponsors:
  AC Hotel - Portsmouth, The Brook Casino, Kane Company and Tidemark, Katzman Contemporary Projects, Raka, Sheraton Portsmouth Harborside Hotel, and Stirling Brandworks

The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation’s Artist Advancement Grant is made possible by the Artist Advancement Initiative Fund, which was created at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation by a Seacoast philanthropist, and expanded by the Foundation's Joan Dwyer and Jayne Dwyer Charitable Fund.

About 3S Artspace:
Curiosity. Creativity. Community.

Through the unique lens of contemporary arts experiences, 3S Artspace invites divergent perspectives and encourages lively discourse centered around issues of today.

The Gallery at 3S Artspace is an incubator of ideas, facilitator of original content, and is committed to presenting a diverse representation of contemporary visual artists. Each year the Gallery presents exhibitions that highlight unprecedented innovation across disciplines, celebrate artistic excellence, encourage lively discourse, and foster an unwavering appreciation for the vital role that art plays in our community. 3sarts.org