R.I.P. Germain: “Jesus Died For Us, We Will Die For Dudus!”

R.I.P. Germain’s practice traffics in double meanings, deep resonances and a tension between accessibility and occlusion. Sedimented with layers dense with cultural meaning and reference, the extensive research undergirding R.I.P. Germain’s work draws from multiple genres of Black experience, history and culture, seeking to make art that is rigorous about his commitments and possibilities as a Black artist. R.I.P. Germain has exhibited internationally and recent exhibitions include The Exhibition Formerly Known As “Trace Image” at Deborah Schamoni, Munich, Germany and Shimmer, a solo show at Two Queens in Leicester, UK. R.I.P. Germain was the recipient of the ICA Image Behaviour 2021 prize, which culminated in his first short film mew premiering at the ICA in 2022.

Award-winning critical theorist and cultural historian Paul Gladston is the Judith Neilson Chair Professor of Contemporary Art, University of New South Wales, Sydney and a distinguished affiliate fellow of the UK-China Humanities Alliance, Tsinghua University. He is co-editor of the book series Contemporary East Asian Visual Cultures, Societies and Politics and was founding principal editor of the Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art. His recent publications include the collected edition Visual Culture Wars at the Borders of Contemporary China (2021) and the monograph Contemporary Chinese Art, Aesthetic Modernity and Zhang Peili: Towards a Critical Contemporaneity (2019). He was an academic adviser to Art of Change: New Directions from China, Hayward Gallery, London (2012).