Genesis Tramaine, Saint with Bethel Vision

Driven by her faith, Genesis Tramaine is an expressionist and urban evangelist painter. Tramaine grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Her upbringing, as well as a close relationship with God and her family, continue to influence her work today. Her mature work is an outgrowth of a childhood drawing practice that often featured monsters and funny faces. Her abstract portraits are meant to transcend gender, race and social structures while being a direct reflection on her love for and relationship with the Church.

Tramaine’s social and political conscience as a female painter is strengthened by the constant challenges that women of color face as a result of social inequalities of race, class and gender. Tramaine’s work is also influenced by Bible verses and other church readings: Her career as a painter reflects her relationship with God. Her spiritual influences have a strong impact on the composition and depth of each painting. By layering every brushstroke to reveal faces, Tramaine creates works with confrontational and provocative uses of color through an urban-inspired, mixed media approach.

For the artist, painting as a medium is a vector of fluidity that gives representation to queer-identifying individuals who are graced with faith. Her work often combines her skills in printmaking, typography and portrait painting. Her work spreads a message of hope, peace and tolerance while also trying to empower the voices of the communities in which Tramaine herself thrives – both as artist and educator.

This gift is the first work by Tramaine to enter the Nasher’s collection. Saint with Bethel Vision will be part of the upcoming exhibition, Beyond the Surface: Collage, Mixed Media and Textile Works from the Collection.

In the gallery below, several works from the collection pair well with Tramaine’s painting.