UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State Professor of Art Rudy Shepherd’s solo exhibition, “The Golden Age,” will be on display at Kates-Ferri Projects in New York City, April 3-May 5. An opening reception will be held Friday, April 5, 6-8 p.m., at the gallery space located at 561 Grand Street.
This collection of acrylic-on-canvas paintings evolves from Shepherd's ongoing portrait series and delves into the visual culture of the golden age of hip-hop in the 1980s and 1990s, a period of tremendous innovation and stylistic experimentation in the genre. Shepherd renders intricate portraits of legendary musicians from iconic publicity photos and album covers, crafting massive 3' by 4' and 4' by 4' works that display the bravado and opulence of hip-hop while also interrogating it, prompting the viewer to reflect on the many meanings embedded in hip-hop imagery and music.
According to a news release from the gallery, Shepherd draws on his own experiences as a hip-hop-loving middle schooler in the 1980s. “…[his] paintings convey the core messages he absorbed as he listened to artists like Slick Rick and Big Daddy Kane: men are physically tough and emotionally distant, their worth is measured by material success, and women are accessories — symbols of a man’s status.”
Shepherd received a bachelor of science degree in biology and studio art from Wake Forest University and a master of fine arts in sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has had solo exhibitions at Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Connecticut; Mixed Greens Gallery, Manhattan; Smack Mellon, Brooklyn; and Regina Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University, among others, in addition to numerous group exhibitions. For more on Shepherd and examples of his work, see his profile page on the College of Arts and Architecture website.