Jim Roche (born 1943) is an American contemporary artist, known for his " outsider art" chronicling Southern culture in sculptures, graphics, and performance art since the 1960s. His work, which often adopts the folk motifs of contemporary Southern culture, has occasioned descriptions as both "standing for the far right" and ... "confront nghypocrisy and social injustice ... aligned [] with the downtrodden, disenfranchised and working class populations."University Galleries
University of Florida.

Life and Education

Roche graduated from the University of Dallas in 1970, and taught at

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

from 1973 to 2011.Allison Meier
"Five Decades of Subverting the Icons of the South"
''HyperAllegic'', May 27, 2015 Roche was part of the "Oak Cliff Four", a group of artists from Dallas. He has been an avid motorcycle racer, and has performed small roles in a number of films—for instance, as a televangelist in " The Silence of the Lambs".Tori Bush, "Jim Roche: Cultural Mechanic at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art", ''Daily Serving'', April 6, 2015. He is married to artist Alexa Kleinbard.Steve Dollar
"Jim Roche Takes Political Messaging to Extremes"
''Art News'', Feb. 14, 2017. In 2023, Roche and Alexa Kleinbard were featured in the group exhibition and accompanying catalog ''Spirit in the Land'', organized by the

Nasher Museum The Nasher Museum of Art (previously the Duke University Museum of Art) is the art museum of Duke University, and is located on Duke's campus in Durham, North Carolina, United States. The Nasher, along with Dartmouth's Hood Museum of Art and Pr ...

of Art at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

and later at the Pérez Art Museum Miami in 2024.

Selected and major works

* ''"Potted Mama"'' - large sculptural works with sexual elements * ''"The Bicentennial Welfare Cadillac"'' (1976) - A decorated 1950 sedan * ''"background piece"'' (1970s); appeared at the Whitney * ''"Don’t Tread on Me No More Y’all: Piece"'' - A large serpent, satire of the flag of

Gadsden, Alabama Gadsden is a city in and the county seat of Etowah County in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is located on the Coosa River about northeast of Birmingham and southwest of Chattanooga, Tennessee. It is the primary city of the Gadsden Metropolitan ...

; appeared in the 37th Venice Biennale in 1976 (full title: ''"Two hundred years keeping animals down, done brought Da Snake crawlin back around, Flashin Symbols for One and All; Don’t Tread on Me No More Y’all: Piece"'') * ''"Learning to Count"'' (1982); spoken word performance on a 2-LP album; Roche speaks in character of people from the South * Co-Curator, with Alexa Kleinbard, Ogden Museum (2011)

Honors

* National Endowment for the Arts in 1975 and 1982"Jim Roche: Glory Roads"
Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts * Florida Arts Council Fellowship in 1980

Exhibitions

* Whitney Annual (1960s) * Venice Biennale in 1976 (invited) * Paris Biennale in 1977 (invited) ; Selected solo exhibitions * Dave Hickey's "Clean, Well-Lighted Space" in Dallas (Roche's first solo exhibition) * Whitney Solo Show (curator,

Marcia Tucker Marcia Tucker (born Marcia Silverman; April 11, 1940 – October 17, 2006)Smith, Roberta ''The New York Times'' (October 19, 2006), Retrieved 23 November 2014. was an American art historian, art critic and curator. In 1977 she founded the New M ...

) * Automobile and Culture (1984) * Made in Florida (1989) * "Jim Roche: Sense of Place",

Gulf Coast Museum of Art The Gulf Coast Museum of Art was located at 12211 Walsingham Road, Largo, Florida. It housed contemporary Florida art in the permanent collection.Gulf Coast Museum of Art"Permanent Collection" ''Gulf Coast Museum of Art website'', 2007. Retriev ...

, Largo Florida (2003-2004)Itinerary"
''Sculpture'', v. 22, n.10 (Dec. 2003). * "Jim Roche: Glory Roads", Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts (2010) * "The Art Guys" (2014) * "Cultural Mechanic",

Ogden Museum of Southern Art The Ogden Museum of Southern Art is located in the Warehouse Arts District of downtown New Orleans, Louisiana. Established in 1999, and in Stephen Goldring Hall at 925 Camp Street since 2003. The building The Ogden consists of two main buildin ...

, New Orleans (2015) (curated by Bradley Sumrall) * "Some Americans Feel Like This", Bale Creek Allen Gallery, Austin, Texas (2016)

Notes

External links