RICK SHUPPER . Feeling the Rapture Grow
FEELING THE RAPTURE GROW is a solo exhibition of the photography of Rick Shupper ranging from the years 1979-1991. Shupper has been living and photographing in New York since the early 1970s. His subjects range from intimate portraits of fellow artists to documentation of the historic queer underground happenings in New York in the seventies and eighties. Having survived the AIDS crisis, much of his work tends toward the impulse of documenting the life and times of the brilliant, audacious and talented figures, many of which now only exist in the shadows of the silver gelatin that make up these photographs. The images shown serve as a survey of abbreviated narratives selected from Rick's vast body of photographic work that relate a sense of the resilience of these human spirits and their ability to relate to each other intimately in the face of such tumultuous times.
The exhibition is made up of approximately twenty, vintage, silver gelatin prints from Rick's own personal archive. The photographs will be accompanied by the names of the subjects depicted as well as short narratives which are derived from the curator's own interviews with the artist.
Rick Shupper (Born 1946) has been photographing in New York City since 1977. He has studied photography at the School of Visual Arts and holds a BA from the City College of New York. His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions and galleries including the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian art. Rick lives in Brooklyn where he continues to work as a fine art photographer.