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Artist Paul Rucker to deliver talk about ‘Preserve & Protect’ pieces

Paul Rucker
Paul Rucker.

(Posted on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021)

Paul Rucker
 

The New Gallery, the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts and the Department of Art + Design are pleased to announce that artist Paul Rucker will speak to the Austin Peay State University community about his work associated with the Preserve & Protect exhibition, currently on display in The New Gallery.

“Paul Rucker is a brilliant artist that is not afraid of asking tough questions and commanding audiences,” states Michael Dickins, director of The New Gallery. “Selections from his Storm in the Time of Shelter body of work are currently in The New Gallery as part of the Preserve & Protect exhibition.

“This exhibition, in the words of my co-curator, Erika Diamond, ‘is an exhibition of conceptual garment work that looks at the complex ways in which textiles, particularly garments, tell the stories of the past, present, and future. More than just armor for the body, they relay the resilience of a culture – worn for protection but also as a way to assert one’s identity,’” Dickins added. “It’s a powerful exhibition that questions whose histories have had the privilege of being heard and ask for a more inclusive authorship of our shared history.”

Rucker’s talk will be at 6 p.m. Nov. 9 via Zoom. Registration for the live-streaming event can be found here at www.bitly.com/PaulRucker.

“This exhibition is one of our most ambitious exhibitions,” Dickins said. “Rucker’s work is a powerful component of this exhibition, and I’m excited to have him on campus to talk with the students, community members and anyone else willing to learn about the power of art and the power of imagery. He’s a great storyteller and engaging speaker.”

Also during his visit, Rucker will conduct studio visits with select students and talk with assistant professor Eboné Amos’ classes in African American Studies.

Preserve & Protect runs through Dec. 10, 2021.

All events are free and open to the public.

You can see a virtual tour of the exhibition www.apsu.edu/art-design/thenewgallery.

About the artist

Rucker is a multimedia visual artist, composer and musician. His practice often integrates live performance, original musical compositions, and visual art installation. For nearly two decades, Rucker has used his brand of artmaking as a social practice, which illuminates the legacy of enslavement in America and its relationship to the current sociopolitical moment. His work is the product of a rich interactive process, through which he investigates community impacts, human rights issues, historical research and basic human emotions.

Rucker has received numerous grants, awards and residencies for visual art and music. He is a 2012 Creative Capital Grantee in visual art as well as a MAP Fund Grantee for performance. He received a Joan Mitchell Painters & Sculptors Grant, and the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, for which he is the first artist in residence at the new National Museum of African American Culture.

He is a Guggenheim Fellow, TED Fellow and Senior Fellow, Rauschenburg Fellow, and an iCubed Arts Research Fellow at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is the curator for Creative Collaboration for VCUarts at Virginia Commonwealth University.

For more about Rucker and his work, visit www.paulrucker.com.

Hours for The New Gallery are 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday, closed on weekends and holidays and follow the university’s academic calendar.

The New Gallery will be open during the next two Clarksville’s First Thursday Art Walks, Nov. 4 and Dec. 2, from 5- 7:30 p.m.

For more information on this exhibition, which is free and open to the public, contact Dickins at dickinsm@apsu.edu.

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