Background Jimmy
Jimmy's background is visible in many of his work. Born in Apeldoorn In 1962 he grew up from four years old in the central part of the Netherlands in a specially selected radical - right fundamental christian foster family.
Subjected to very controversial violent strategies around religion, gender, identity and origin for fourteen years, he left the system with permanent physical and psychological injuries. Dutch government institutions and the Public Prosecution Service deliberately covered his case for decades, to avoid negative publicity for the government and to obstruct justice. To process and deal with the past, Jimmy turned to creativity, which became a pillar stone in his life.
In his art, Jimmy Groen finds the story more important than a perfect representation of reality. In addition to making landscapes and portraits in oil paint and pastel, he made and exhibited between 2020 and 2024 in various 'taboo themes' on social injustice as Queer identity in childhood, 80s Police Corrective Rape, Phantoms of Taboo and Violence in The Youth Care System.
Between 2017 and 2020, Jimmy studied concepts of theorethical physics and four dimensional space to incorporate in his work.
Tim and Alex, the creative littles, featured on stage in the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht as a visible part of a dissociative identity.
Image below: "Violence in the Dutch youth care system" during the exhibition On the edge, Maastricht, Cultural Stage Lutherse Kerk, 2022. The work is in mixed media on paper in the size 179 x 78 cm.
