RASHAUN RUCKER
Photo: CJ Benninger
Born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Rashaun Rucker attended 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. The same year, he won a Natural Emmy Award for Documentary Photography on the pitbull culture in Detroit. Rucker has held numerous fellowships and residencies, including the Maynard Fellowship at Harvard in 2009; a Hearst Visiting Professional in the journalism department at the University of North Caroline-Chapel Hill in 2013; an Artist Residency at the Red Bull House of Art in 2014; Kresge Arts Fellowship in 2019; a residency at the International Studios and Curatorial Program in Brooklyn, New York in 2021; and a Mellon Fellowship at the University of Michigan Institute of Humanities in 2021.
Rucker was honored as a Modern Man by Black Enterprise Magazine in 2016 and 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 followed by A Sustainable Arts Foundation Award in 2020 and a Visual Arts Grant by the Harpo Foundation in 2021.
Currently, Rucker is pursuing an MFA in print media at Cranbrook Academy of Art. His diverse work is represented in numerous public and private collections.
Bound by the Soil
Jamaal Barber and Rashaun Rucker
Exhibition on view October 30 - December 12
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville | Downtown UT Gallery
Rashaun Rucker and Jamaal Barber will be exhibiting together at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville this November in "Bound by the Soil" an exhibition that focuses on their experience growing up in North Carolina and being southern, black man bound by family and faith.
Rucker will be exhibiting work from his ever evolving series "Patron Saints of a Black Boy" that has been travelling to Universities and Institutions across the US for the last two years.
In advance of the exhibition, we wanted to share an early conversation with Rashaun and Jamaal on Jamaal's fantastic podcast "StudioNoiz" in 2021 where Rashaun discussed his exhibition Up from the Red Clay with M Contemporary Art.
SNP Episode 108: Carolina Red Clay with printmaker Rashaun Rucker
In conversation with Jamaal Barber
April 22, 2021
EXHIBITION HISTORY
The Art League Gallery at South Bend Museum of Art, IN
October - January, 2024
Art Galleries at Black Studies (AGBS), TX
August - December, 2024
Projective Eye Gallery at UNC Charlotte, NC
May - June, 2025
M Contemporary Art, Ferndale, MI
September - November, 2025
Exhibitions
Available Work
Selected CV
Patron Saints of a Black Boy, solo exhibition at Projective Eye Gallery at UNC Charlotte, NC
2025
Patron Saints of a Black Boy, solo exhibition at Art Galleries at Black Studies (AGBS), TX
2024
Patron Saints of a Black Boy, solo exhibition at the South Bend Museum of Art, IN
2023
Juror at Print Austin, TX
2023
Relief from the Heat, solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD)
2022
Residency at the International Studio & Curatorial Program Residency, Brooklyn, NY
2021
Mellon Fellow at the University of Michigan Institute of Humanities, Ann Arbor, MI
2021
Kresge Visual Arts Fellow, Detroit, MI
2019
Artist Residency at the Red Bull House of Art, Detroit
2014
Maynard Fellow at Harvard University, MA
2009
Emmy Award for documentary photography on the pit bull culture in Detroit
2008
In the Journal
Video
RASHAUN RUCKER
Relief print on paper
AP 1/2
17 × 11 inches