Joe Ovelman (born 1970 in

West Chester, Pennsylvania West Chester is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough and the county seat of Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located in the Delaware Valley, Philadelphia metropolitan area, the borough had a population of 18,671 at the 2020 census. West ...

) is a US

contemporary art Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a ...

ist and author who works with video, photography, sculpture,

installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific art, site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior intervent ...

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

artist's book Artists' books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that engage with and transform the form of a book. Some are mass-produced with multiple editions, some are published in small editions, while others are produced as one-of-a-kind o ...

s, and drawing. His work has featured in several

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street murals. Ovelman currently lives and works in New York City. He has also lived in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla language, Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Rivers ...

, and

São Paulo, Brazil SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Serb Autonomous Regions (''Srpska autonomna oblast'', SAO), during the breakup of Yu ...

Career

Ovelman surveys sexuality, social norms, and marginalized communities in his work. He often invites individuals to participate in projects, whether asking them to don his father's

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

Uniform on 12th Street Beach in

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Miami, or as recipients of an epic cross-country book-gifting performance, "Boondocking: You I See," 2019. Ovelman's first cited work was an image in

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whose tagline read simply, "Street Art." Ovelman pasted images along the construction wall surrounding Larry Gagosian's Chelsea

Gagosian Gallery The Gagosian Gallery is a modern and contemporary art gallery owned and directed by Larry Gagosian. The gallery exhibits some of the most well-known artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. As of 2024, Gagosian employs 300 people at 19 exhibiti ...

in a project titled, "Boys 4 Spring," 2000. The project then re-emerged, reimagined, in Richard Anderson's salon exhibition "Living is Easy," in the summer of 2000. His NYC solo exhibition, "Like A Virgin," named for Madonna's second LP, was in 2004. Ovelman's 2011 Connersmith exhibition titled, "Coming Home," was a departure from earlier exhibitions in that it was only sculpture. Ovelman is also known for

Sharpie (marker) Sharpie is a brand of writing implements (mainly permanent markers) manufactured by Newell Brands, a public company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Originally designating a single permanent marker, the Sh ...

drawings on

Post-it Note A Post-it note (or sticky note) is a small piece of paper with a re-adherable strip of glue on its back, made for temporarily attaching notes to documents and other surfaces. A low-adhesion, tack pressure-sensitive adhesive allows the notes to ...

s. His notes have expanded beyond the Post-it format in works such as "When I grow up," 2003, "12 Drawings," 2007, and as artist's books beginning in 2018. His work is in private collections, the

Wadsworth Atheneum The Wadsworth Atheneum is an art museum in Hartford, Connecticut. The Wadsworth is noted for its collections of European Baroque art, ancient Egyptian and Classical bronzes, French and American Impressionism, Impressionist paintings, Hudson Riv ...

Museum of Art, and in Michael Petry's ''The Word is Art'', (Thames and Hudson), 2018. His photographs also appear on the

Arsenal Pulp Press Arsenal Pulp Press is a Canadian independent book publishing company, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company publishes a broad range of titles in both fiction and non-fiction, focusing primarily on underrepresented genres such as und ...

covers of

Daniel Allen Cox Daniel Allen Cox (born February 3, 1976) is a Canadian author. Cox's novels ''Shuck and Krakow Melt'' were both finalists for the Lambda Literary Award and the ReLit Awards, ReLit Award, and his memoir-in-essays ''I Felt the End Before It Came: M ...

's book, ''Shuck'', and Terry Goldie's, ''queersexlife''. In 2024, Ovelman participated in curator Patrick Burton's

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

queer biennial exhibition, Mighty Real Queer Detroit, exhibiting work at three venues: Scarab Club, The Carr Center, and Wayne State University's Elaine L. Jacob gallery.

Artist's books

* Pictures and Words, (Volume 6), (S.T.H. Editions), 2018. * Destination Wedding, (Two Cover Color Options in

The Beverly Hills Hotel The Beverly Hills Hotel, also called the Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows, is located on Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California. One of the world's best-known hotels, it is closely associated with Hollywood film stars, rock stars, and ce ...

Green and Pink), 2018. * On Grief, 2019. * You I See, 2019. * Fourteen Schools in Fourteen Days, 2020. * Die Fame Die, 2020. * SEX in the 11206, 2022. * The Last Gayborhood, 2023. * SAUNA DISH, 2025.

References

External links

* Joe Ovelman - Official site https://www.joeovelman.com * Joe Ovelman - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChsIjX5ay3BNFMZIOkY5iTg * Joe Ovelman - Instagram https://www.instagram.com/joeovelman/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Ovelman, Joe 1970 births Living people American contemporary artists