Southern California painter Aimée Rolin Hoover's work has focused exclusively on the animal kingdom for over 25 years. After graduating from California State University Long Beach, she spent the first decade and a half of her career building a practice in commissioned animal portraiture. That early discipline sharpened a conviction that continues to motivate her work today: that animals hold an almost involuntary power to halt our chronic overthinking and create space for genuine feeling. Her paintings resist the confines of strict wildlife realism in favor of more emotionally driven work—using her subjects as vessels to convey joy, awe, and introspection. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and are held in private collections across more than a dozen countries.
STATEMENT
I grew up trying to befriend things that didn’t want to be caught.
Ravens, raccoons, feral dogs.
This meant spending long stretches of time being very still, waiting. So when my patience finally paid off, it was truly magical.
Making friends in Michigan, age 12. Meeting a very wet tiger cub, age 40
In those moments I wasn’t thinking about yesterday or planning for tomorrow. I was just there. Completely.
What I've come to understand is that animals have an unparalleled capacity to pull human consciousness into the present tense. Because they operate entirely outside the mental architecture of worry and regret. They simply are. And in witnessing them, we briefly become that too.
When we lock eyes with a deer or coyote for a brief second, something shifts in us before our conscious mind has any say in it. They snap us out of rumination and into wonder.
This is what I’m attempting to recreate in my work—the felt conditions of these encounters. The quality of attention they demand, the involuntary slowing down, the specific emotional tone each animal carries.
The animals themselves are the magic. I want my work to simply hold the door open to them.
CV
TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2025 BIOPHILIA, GAREL FINE ART, Manhattan Beach, CA (May/June)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025-2026 The Winter Show, Palos Verdes Art Center, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA (December)
2025 REGENESIS II, BG Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, CA (March)
2025 REGENESIS I, BG Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, CA (February)
2025 PAWS FOR ART, BG Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, CA (January)
2024 MAS Attack, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA (December)
2023 Sketch for Survival, Gallery@oxo, London, UK and Dundas Street Gallery, Edinburgh, IE
2022 Peaceable Kingdom, TEW Galleries, Atlanta, GA (Dec-Jan 2023)
2018 Director's Choice, 19 KAREN Gallery, Australia (March-May)
2018 Fauna, Abend Gallery, Denver, CO (January)
2017 27th Annual Holiday Miniatures Show, Abend Gallery, Denver, CO (December)
2017 St. Hilda Annual Art Exhibition, St. Hilda School, Southport QLD, Australia (October)
2017 31st Annual Downlands Art Exhibition, Downlands College, Toowoomba QLD, Australia (September)
2017 Director's Choice, 19 KAREN Gallery, Australia (July)
2016 26th Annual Holiday Miniatures Show, Abend Gallery, Denver, CO (December)
2016 Premiere Exhibition, Animal History Museum, Burbank, CA (May)
2015 Selected Works, Elizabeth Gordon Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA (January)
2004 The Back Room, Gallery C, Hermosa Beach, CA
2003 Winter Group Show, James Gray Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, CA
2002 Winter Group Show, James Gray Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, CA
2000 Solid Ground, New Millennium Art Gallery, San Diego,CA
2000 Summer Group Show, New Millennium Art Gallery, San Diego, CA
2000 Opening Night, New Millennium Art Gallery, San Diego, CA
2000 Holiday Show, Articulture Gallery, Hermosa Beach, CA
1999 Summer Group Show, Articulture Gallery, Hermosa Beach, CA
1999 Homegrown Talent, Articulture Gallery, Hermosa Beach, CA
1998 Winter Group Show, BGH Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, CA
1995 Fall Group Juried Show, Palos Verdes Art Center, Palos Verdes Estates, CA
AWARDS
2025 Allan Lay Memorial Award Recipient, The Winter Show, Palos Verdes Art Center, Palos Verdes, CA
PERIODICALS
2017 Susan Cullen Hamilton, “Painter Aimée Hoover Explores Her Animal Instinct,” Southbay Magazine (December)
2017 Michael Hixon, “30 Paintings in 30 Days?,” The Beach Reporter (August)
2016 Mission Village Voice, Cover Art / Featured Artist (March)
2008 Bark Magazine (December)
2006 Solano Magazine (December)
2006 Urban Animal, “Pet Art” (February)
TELEVISION
2010 The Bonnie Hunt Show, On-air guest, NBC (January)
2010 The Bonnie Hunt Show, On-air guest / Interview, NBC (March)
2009 The Bonnie Hunt Show, work presented on air, NBC (February)
EDUCATION
1992 Bachelor of Arts, with emphasis in Drawing and Painting, California State University Long Beach
To hear more about Aimée’s story, feel free to listen to one of her podcast interviews below.
