James Gregory Atkinson: 6 Friedberg-Chicago

6 Friedberg–Chicago, the first institutional solo-exhibition by the German-American artist James Gregory Atkinson, illuminates a neglected part of Afro-American-German history on personal, social and political levels.

The exhibition presents the artist’s new same-titled film, which he shot in the Ray Barracks, a former US Army base in Friedberg. It was made in collaboration with the dancer and choreographer Josh Johnson and the harpist and singer Ahya Simone.
The exhibition also presents a non-linear archive exploring the history of Black soldiers in Germany and that of their children, compiled with Eric Otieno (sociologist and political scientist) and Mearg Negusse (art historian).

James Gregory Atkinson (*1981 in Bad Nauheim) studied with Douglas Gordon at the Städelschule, Frankfurt, and has received scholarships and artist residencies from the Villa Aurora, Los Angeles (2016), and the Jan Van Eyck Akademie, Maastricht (2017), and a studio grant for New York from the Hessische Kulturstiftung (2018).

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