James Gregory Atkinson

In his research-based exhibition projects, German-American artist James Gregory Atkinson (b. 1981, Bad Nauheim) combines elements of social and political history with his biography to examine the absence of Afro-German experiences within dominant narratives of race, identity, and nationality in Germany. By integrating documents, objects, oral histories, bodies, places, and performative practices into a living, shared archive, he reimagines memory, experience, and knowledge as relational and dynamic. His practice situates him within a lineage of post-conceptual artists who view the archive as both a site of self-determination and a locus for critiquing power, engaging communities and significant sites through participatory and performative methods that bring historical and contemporary experiences into dialogue.

He has also participated in group exhibitions at Galerie Capitain Petzel, Berlin (2022); Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn (2023); 2nd Biennale für Freiburg, Freiburg (2023); Portikus, Frankfurt (2023); Völklinger Hütte, Völklingen (2024); PalaisPopulaire, Berlin (2025); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2025); Museum of Fine Arts, Leipzig (2025); and Akademie der Künste, Berlin (2025).

His films have been screened at the Berlinale Forum Expanded (2022), Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt (2022), PalaisPopulaire, Berlin (2023), and Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge (2024).

He has held teaching positions at Goethe University Frankfurt (WS 2022/23, WS 2024/25) and at Muthesius Kunsthochschule Kiel (WS 2024/25), and he has delivered lectures and panels at Princeton University (2024), Kunsthochschule Kassel (2024), ifa-Galerie Berlin (2023), Berliner Festspiele (2023), HfG Offenbach (2025), and HGB Leipzig (2022).

His debut publication, 6 Friedberg-Chicago (Dortmunder Kunstverein, 2021–2022), is scheduled for release by Spector Books in 2025 and highlights his archival practice through images and interviews with scholars and contributors to Black German discourses.

Atkinson currently lives and works in Frankfurt am Main.