Redbud Gallery is pleased and humored to present the latest “Spoken Word” works by the iconic American multimedia artist, Jim Roche, in a rare public appearance. The artist will be present. The viewer should be aware that some of the material will be adult and somewhat irreverent in nature.

Roche was born near Malone, Florida in 1943, received a BA from Florida State University in 1966, and spent seven years in Texas before returning to teach at FSU for many years. Since displaying a painted ceramic sculpture in the 1970 Whitney Annual, he has never stopped working.

Along with sculpture and drawing, he started doing audio performance tapes in 1971 and would later play them in NYC at the Paula Cooper Gallery in 1974. Very underground and unpolitically correct, these raw tapes caught on and were pirated by several sources in Germany and Nashville. Some of the work was published in written form. Invisible City, Red Hill Press, Fairfax, California 1980. Boxcar Magazine, Los Angeles, 1983. Avalanche Magazine, NYC, 1976. High Performance Magazine, Spring 1984. The work has been published in audio form as well, starting in 1972, these audio works have been played many times in museums and gallery shows around the country and were featured on Pacifica Radio in LA during the late 80's.

Roche has been working on visual art efforts for 50 years since 1968, including a solo at the Whitney Museum in 1974, inclusion in the 37th Venice Biennial in 1976, and the 10th Biennale De Paris in 1977. He has shown mostly in public museums over the decades. He started doing video performance in 1985 and stopped doing sound-only pieces for a while, only recently picking it back up with a 2013 double CD "Some Americans Feel Like This." Along the way, Roche did cameo parts in movies including, “Something Wild” in 1986, “Silence of the Lambs” in 1990, “Philadelphia” in 1993, “Beloved” in 1998, and “The Manchurian Candidate” in 2003. His audio performance of “Fight It Out” was used as a guide line to copy in a long scene from the movie “Slacker”. "The Best of Jim Roche: Multiple Voices 1986 to 1993," is a DVD of thirty video performance characters that was published in October 2006.

Jim Roche has continued drawing and showing spoken word. With this new body of "word only" drawings, Roche feels like his interest in our culture and where it goes continues and he thanks all of the people who have helped this happen. Enjoy this rare appearance of an American Southern Master.