In collaboration with Numéro art
During the final years of his life, he was rarely seen without a mask. A master of graffiti, a painter, sculptor, rapper, and creator of costumes, objects, and accessories of all kinds, Rammellzee (1960–2010) remained, until his death, as mysterious as he was unclassifiable – a figure whose genius we are only now beginning to grasp.
Fifteen years after his untimely death, the Palais de Tokyo in Paris is staging his first retrospective in France, running until May 11. With around 100 works, including rare pieces never shown before, this two-part exhibition in Paris will be followed in 2026 by a further installment at Capc Musée d’art contemporain in Bordeaux, thereby allowing an in-depth exploration of the legacy of this complex and eminently singular character.
From his beginnings in 1970s New York, Rammellzee distinguished himself by creating, but also theorizing, his own language. Describing himself as a ‘Gothic soldier’, the artist turned words and letters into weapons, waging a war against those in power who control us through language. He emptied words of their familiar meanings, injecting them with new, mysterious significances. In 1979, aged just 19, he adopted the pseudonym RAMMΣLLZΣΣ, and produced his own manifesto, in which he theorized two philosophies: ‘Gothic Futurism’ and ‘Ikonoklast Panzerism’, born from his obsession with Gothic iconography and typography on the one hand, and science fiction and horror imagery on the other. ‘Rammellzee grew up in Far Rockaway, Queens in New York,’ explains Hugo Vitrani, curator of the retrospective at the Palais de Tokyo. ‘He lived next to the overground subway arches, which he saw as doors to the future.’ And which would become his first playground.
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