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"[1] and ... "confront[ing] hypocrisy and social injustice ... aligned [] with the downtrodden, disenfranchised and working class populations.
[3] 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".
[5] In 2023, Roche and Alexa Kleinbard were featured in the group exhibition and accompanying catalog Spirit in the Land, organized by the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University and later at the Pérez Art Museum Miami in 2024.