Jim Ovelmen
Jim Ovelmen is a mixed media artist. His work often combines drawing, painting, sculpture and animation, into media projection and performance. His work continues to be shown internationally.
Ovelmen created a mural painting titled ‘Solheim’s Last Supper’ for this exhibition. This piece draws from characters in his past works and personal stories.
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA
MFA, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
BFA, Illinois State University, Normal, IL
Jim Ovelmen is a mixed media artist. His work often combines drawing, painting, sculpture and animation, into media projection and performance. His work continues to be shown internationally.
Ovelmen created a mural painting titled ‘Solheim’s Last Supper’ for this exhibition. This piece draws from characters in his past works and personal stories.
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA
MFA, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
BFA, Illinois State University, Normal, IL
About "Solheim's Last Supper"
Solheim is the name of a nursing home in Eagle Rock part of Los Angeles, for many people living out the end of their lives there. Some are returning to past identities in younger lives with their different degrees of dementia. The (Solheim) home would often wheel their residents in one area or line them up during the day so they could keep an eye on multiple at one glance. It looked like a morbid procession or something ritualistic.
All the 13 people in the painting are likenesses of people that I met at Miami art fairs in the past that interacted with previous painted paper installations of mine. (You can see parts of those large painted paper installations depicted here.). I imagine those Miami people as the projected fantasy identities of the Solheim people. You can take away or imagine anything you want with this work though. There are a lot of other ideas and angles you can get from the image and the title. And all are invited to do so.
Solheim is the name of a nursing home in Eagle Rock part of Los Angeles, for many people living out the end of their lives there. Some are returning to past identities in younger lives with their different degrees of dementia. The (Solheim) home would often wheel their residents in one area or line them up during the day so they could keep an eye on multiple at one glance. It looked like a morbid procession or something ritualistic.
All the 13 people in the painting are likenesses of people that I met at Miami art fairs in the past that interacted with previous painted paper installations of mine. (You can see parts of those large painted paper installations depicted here.). I imagine those Miami people as the projected fantasy identities of the Solheim people. You can take away or imagine anything you want with this work though. There are a lot of other ideas and angles you can get from the image and the title. And all are invited to do so.
Jim Ovelmen
"Solheim's Last Supper"
2024
100 x 336 inches
Acrylic on Paper