Rudy Shepherd
- Professor of Art
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Sculpture
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Drawing
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Painting
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Performance
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Video Art
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Sound Art
211 Visual Arts
- Email crs17@psu.edu
- Phone 814.863.0135
- Vitae Download/View CV
![Rudy Shepherd](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/directoryImages/_480x480_crop_center-center_80_none/Rudy-Shepherd-headshot-1164px.jpg)
Biography
Rudy Shepherd's latest work explores the nature of evil through the mediums of painting and sculpture. This exploration involves investigations into the lives of criminals and victims of crime. He explores the complexity of these stories and the grey areas between innocence and guilt in a series of paintings and drawings of both the criminals and the victims, making no visual distinctions between the two. By presenting the people first and the stories second, a space is created for humanity to be re-instilled into the lives of people who have been reduced to mere headlines by the popular press. Going along with these portraits is a series of sculptures called the Black Rock Negative Energy Absorbers. They are a group of sculptures meant to remove negative energy from people allowing them to respond to life with the more positive aspects of their personality. The series is, on the one hand, a response to living in New York City and witnessing the madness that takes place in this American microcosm. At the same time, it is also an approach to political art that seeks to push the dialogue started in the late-80s/early-90s forward into 2015 by looking at the problems of society in a more comprehensive way and advancing practices culled from new-age mythology and ancient religions to heal our still divided and troubled country.
Based in New York City, Rudy Shepherd received a BS in Biology and Studio Art from Wake Forest University and an MFA in Sculpture from the School of Art Institute of Chicago. He has been in group exhibitions at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, NY, The Studio Museum of Harlem, NY, Bronx Museum of Art, NY, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Art in General, NY, Triple Candie, NY, Socrates Sculpture Park, NY, Cheekwood Museum of Art, TN, Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, MD, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, CT, Southeastern Center of Contemporary Art, NC, Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL, NSU Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Fl, Tart Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Analix Forever Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland and solo exhibitions at Mixed Greens Gallery, NY, Regina Miller Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. He has been awarded Artist in Residence at PS1 National/International Studio Program, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY, Artist in Residence Visual + Harlem, Jacob Lawrence Institute for the Visual Arts, New York, NY, Process Space Artist in Residence Governors Island, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York, NY and Emerging Artist Fellowship, Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY, Artist in Residence, Location One, NY. He is currently represented by Mixed Greens Gallery, NY.
Collected Works
![Slick Rick, hip hop artist, Golden Age series, Acrylic on canvas, 3 x 4 feet](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/rudy-shepherd-works-Slick-Rick.jpg)
![Thích Nhất Hạnh (1926-2022) a Vietnamese Thiền Buddhist monk, peace activist, prolific author, poet, teacher, and founder of the Plum Village Tradition, is historically recognized as the main inspiration for engaged Buddhism. Thích Nhất Hạnh is known as the "father of mindfulness." Acrylic on panel, 8 x 10 inches, 2022](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/rudy-shepherd-works-Thich-Nhat-Nanh.jpg)
![Performance still from Rudy Shepherd’s live performance: Healing Music for a Troubled World, Sept. 10, 2022, Basilica Hudson, Hudson, NY](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/rudy-shepherd-works-Healing-Music-for-a-Toubled-World-1.jpg)
![Performance still from Rudy Shepherd’s live performance: Healing Music for a Troubled World, Sept. 10, 2022, Basilica Hudson, Hudson, NY](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/rudy-shepherd-works-Healing-Music-for-a-Toubled-World-2-769x1024.jpg)
![Artist Rudy Shepherd kneeling, arms spread in front of his rock sculpture while wearing a black body suit and a rock "mask"](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Rudy-Shepherd_8-scaled.jpg)
![Watercolor painting of various individuals laid out on floor. A person in white lab coat stands among them.](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Rudy-Shepherd_14.jpg)
![Painting depicting the death of three-year-old Syrian boy Alan Kurdi, lying face down on the shore.](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Rudy-Shepherd_20.jpg)
![Painted portrait of The Reverend Clementa C. Pinckney, one of the nine black parishioners killed in the Charleston, South Carolina church shooting in 2015.](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Rudy-Shepherd_12-copy.jpg)
![Acrylic painting of Mount Everest against blue sky.](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Rudy-Shepherd_1.jpg)
![Acrylic painting of Devil's Tower against blue sky.](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Rudy-Shepherd_2.jpg)
![Gallery featuring artist Rudy Shepherd's Holy Mountain paintings and mini sculptures.](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Rudy-Shepherd_3.jpg)
![Acrylic painting of fog flowing down one of the sacred mountains. Green mountain ranges lie in the distance.](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Rudy-Shepherd_4.jpg)
![White, black, teal, and pink abstract sculpture.](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Rudy-Shepherd_5.jpg)
![Black sculpture of a human head lying on side.](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Rudy-Shepherd_6.jpg)
![Artist Rudy Shepherd standing with arms raised front of his rock sculpture while wearing a black body suit and a faux rock "mask"](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Rudy-Shepherd_7.jpg)
![Artist Rudy Shepherd dressed in a black bodysuit and faux rock mask. He's standing in front of two performing musicians while holding a microphone.](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Rudy-Shepherd_9.jpg)
![Artist Rudy Shepherd facing his rock sculpture from the side while wearing a black body suit and a rock "mask"](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Rudy-Shepherd_10.jpg)
![Painted portraits of Tywanza Sanders (left), one of the nine black parishioners killed in the Charleston, South Carolina church shooting in 2015 and another black male pictured on the right.](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Rudy-Shepherd_11.jpg)
![Painting depicting a group of distraught women.](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Rudy-Shepherd_13.jpg)
![Landscape-format painting of Malaysia Airlines airplane against blue sky with clouds.](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Rudy-Shepherd_16.jpg)
![Gallery of watercolor portraits depicting various public figures.](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Rudy-Shepherd_17.jpg)
![Painted portrait of Edward Snowden.](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Rudy-Shepherd_18.jpg)
![Painted portrait of Michael Brown, who was shot and killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri.](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Rudy-Shepherd_19.jpg)
![Tall dark grey sculpture set alone in a snowy field, with New York City's skyline in the background.](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Shepherd_Rudy_1.jpg)
![Woman meditating at the base of a large black rock sculpture.](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Shepherd_Rudy_5.jpg)
![Black abstract sculpture sitting in white room.](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/work/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Shepherd_Rudy_15.jpg)