GENESIS TRAMAINE: SWEET JESUS!

Almine Rech Paris, Turenne is pleased to present SWEET JESUS!, Genesis Tramaine’s fifth solo exhibition with the gallery.

October 12 – November 16, 2024

Genesis Tramaine, born in New York in 1983, defines herself today as “a devotional painter,” and specifically as “a queer devotional painter,” titling her 2018 exhibition in New York “God is Trans.” Through daily morning meditation and study, she explores the life of the saints, finding the inspiration and information that lead to her paintings. This calls to mind the Golden Legend, tales of the lives of 150 saints that were written by Jacques de Voragines between 1261 and 1266, inspiring artists from the Middle Ages on, especially Italian Renaissance painters.

A former teacher who was trained as a mathematician, Tramaine is self-taught. “I've wanted to be an artist since I was a child. I took my prayers seriously, which means I began to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior about 7 years ago. I asked God if I could paint and pray, help and give, as an offering of service for the rest of my life. And the paintings began to mature. I committed to the relationship that painting offers spiritually, in Jesus’ name.”

By offering her artistic version of the tales defining the life of each saint, she wants to establish an alternative truth. “I think it’s important that you paint a real narrative, an honest reflection. I don’t think [my saints] look like saints as they have been given to us...[those] were false narratives.”

The new paintings that she is presenting at Almine Rech in Paris (her first solo exhibition in Paris, and her fifth with the gallery, which has shown her work in New York, Aspen, Brussels, and London) mark an exciting development.