RASHAUN RUCKER: RELIEF FROM THE HEAT
Relief From the Heat presents Detroit-based artist Rashaun Rucker’s ruminations on intergenerational identity and kinship sustained within the Black Church. Born and raised in the American South, Rucker reminisces on the church as a space for communal gathering, familial intimacy, and identity development. Nationally recognized for his printmaking and draftsman work, this exhibition is a return to Rucker’s roots as a photojournalist, the career that brought him to the Midwest via a job at the Detroit Free Press. Reflecting on his journey as a creative, Rucker expands the medium of documentary photography and drawing to present an installation of brand new multi-medium works. Relief From the Heat is a nod to the aunties, uncles, and cousins who created a village that grew Rucker into the artist he is today.
PAST EXHIBITIONS
RASHAUN RUCKER:
RELIEF FROM THE HEAT
NOVEMBER 5, 2022 – MARCH 26, 2023
Relief From the Heat presents Detroit-based artist Rashaun Rucker’s ruminations on intergenerational identity and kinship sustained within the Black Church. Born and raised in the American South, Rucker reminisces on the church as a space for communal gathering, familial intimacy, and identity development. Nationally recognized for his printmaking and draftsman work, this exhibition is a return to Rucker’s roots as a photojournalist, the career that brought him to the Midwest via a job at the Detroit Free Press. Reflecting on his journey as a creative, Rucker expands the medium of documentary photography and drawing to present an installation of brand new multi-medium works. Relief From the Heat is a nod to the aunties, uncles, and cousins who created a village that grew Rucker into the artist he is today.
ARTIST BIO
Rashaun Rucker is a product of North Carolina Central University and Marygrove College. He makes photographs, prints, and drawings and has won over 40 national and state awards for his work. In 2008 Rucker became the first African American to be named Michigan Press Photographer of the Year. He also won a national Emmy Award in 2008 for documentary photography on the pit bull culture in Detroit. Rucker was a Maynard Fellow at Harvard in 2009 and a Hearst visiting professional in the journalism department at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2013. In 2014 Rucker was awarded an artist residency at the Red Bull House of Art. He was honored as a Modern Man by Black Enterprise magazine in 2016, and in 2017 Rucker created the original artwork for the critically acclaimed Detroit Free Press documentary 12th and Clairmount. His work was recently featured in HBO’s celebrated series Random Acts of Flyness and the movie Native Son. In 2019 Rucker was the first awardee of the Red Bull Arts Detroit grant, and was named a Kresge Arts Fellow for his drawing practice. He was named a Sustainable Arts Foundation awardee in 2020 and awarded a prestigious International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) residency and a Mellon residency at the University of Michigan Institute of Humanities in 2021. Rucker’s diverse work is represented in numerous public and private collections.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
TALK: RASHAUN RUCKER
Wednesday, November 30, 2022
Relief From the Heat is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit in partnership with the International Studio & Curatorial Program. This exhibition is supported by the International Studio & Curatorial Program and the Kettering Family Foundation with additional support provided by M Contemporary Art.
Image: Rashaun Rucker, I Hit More Than I Missed, 2021. Cast Plaster (installation). Courtesy of the artist.
