Artist in Residence | Artist Talk with Jacob Olmedo

​“We’re all just softness seeking solid ground.” By Jacob Olmedo

Artist Talk April 25, 2025 at 6:30pm

Ace Artist in Residence | Presented in collaboration with curatorial partner Powerhouse Arts

The Ace Hotel New York is pleased to present an artist’s talk on Friday, April 25 with Ace Artist in Residence Jacob Olmedo, whose exhibition “We’re all just softness seeking solid ground.” is currently on view in the gallery.

Jacob Olmedo (they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist working in textiles and sculptures that blend traditional and contemporary forms to effect and reflect queer futures. Across “We’re all just softness,” an installation comprising ceramics, garments, and beaded tapestries strung on poles, they aim to reveal the vitality within sterile, mechanized structures, asserting that said vitality is more powerful and proliferative than that which seeks to keep it constrained. Through a practice involving time-intensive and repetitive labor, experiments in submission and control, and the subversion of traditional printing techniques; as well as a grounding focus on touch and color, and a thematic interest in connection, armor, and adornment, Jacob asks us to consider how queer and trans people might find the beauty that exists between reaching for something and arriving at it.

Join Jacob and Brooklyn-based writer and editor Joy Westerman in the Loft for a freewheeling conversation on both the current exhibition and Jacob’s overarching artistic development. Topics up for discussion include the role of glamor and delusion in the artist’s life; the possibilities afforded by a combined live/work space; the necessity of reckoning with anti-LGBTQ violence in one’s practice; the erotics of perfection vs. acceptance; the inherent queerness of printing on tapestry; favorite pieces and problem children among the works in the show; the enduring power of bright red nails; the crisis of mediocrity plaguing contemporary art; and Jacob’s planned return to their fashion designer roots. The talk will begin at 6:30pm and will run until the term ‘cunt’ is deconstructed to the satisfaction of all attendees. 

About Joy Westerman—

Joy Westerman is a writer and editor from Brooklyn, New York. Her close reads of literature, art, and culture can be found at briefencounters.substack.com.