Rashaun Rucker: Never Free To Rest

Detroit artist Rashaun Rucker explores black male iden­tity through Amer­i­can ornithol­ogy. In his hybrid por­traits, he com­bines the images of black men with the anatom­i­cal fea­tures of rock pigeons, both cast aside and con­di­tioned, unable to free them­selves from their imposed fates or surroundings.

Rashaun Rucker was born in Win­ston-Salem, NC, and is a prod­uct of North Car­olina Cen­tral Uni­ver­sity and Mary­grove Col­lege. He makes pho­tographs, prints and draw­ings and has won more than 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. In 2016 Rucker was hon­ored as a Mod­ern Man by Black Enter­prise mag­a­zine. In 2017 Rucker cre­ated the orig­i­nal art­work for the crit­i­cally acclaimed Detroit Free Press doc­u­men­tary 12 and Clair­mount. His work was recently fea­tured in HBO’s cel­e­brated series Ran­dom Acts of Fly­ness and Native Son. In 2019 Rucker was awarded the Red Bull Arts Detroit micro grant and was named a Kresge Arts Fel­low for his draw­ing prac­tice. Rucker’s work is rep­re­sented in numer­ous pub­lic and pri­vate collections.

Rashaun Rucker’s work is on view at the Insti­tute for the Human­i­ties (Suite 1111, 202 S. Thayer St.) from Sep­tem­ber 13th through Octo­ber 15, 2021.