Yvette Rock is a painter, object-maker, photographer, and performer. She connects concepts like the passage of time to identity, racism, history, nature, motherhood, memory, physical spaces, and the collision of worlds. She graduated with a BFA from Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 1997 and an MFA in painting from University of Michigan in 1999. She is currently pursuing a K-12 Certificate in Visual Arts Education from College for Creative Studies. Yvette has been a teaching artist with InsideOut Literary Arts for 25 years and continues to partner with organizations to bring visual arts to children. In 2012 she founded Live Coal Gallery, LLC (LCG) – a small business in Detroit. LCG was a recipient of the 2017, 2019, and 2021 Knight Arts Challenge. Rock is the Founder and Executive Director of Live Coal, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization transforming lives and neighborhoods through art, community development, and education. She is a 2019 Facing Change: Documenting Detroit Fellow and a 2024 Seed and Bloom: Detroit Fellow. Rock lives in Detroit with her husband and five children.
I am a painter, object-maker, photographer, and performer. I connect concepts like the passage of time to identity, racism, history, nature, motherhood, memory, physical spaces, and the collision of worlds. I use symbols like a pile of dirt, a boat, hair, and the color black as visual schemas to represent these complicated ideas. I am not locked into one type of style or technique; instead, I foster a dialogue between the concept and process to make moving pieces layered with meaning; art that is ambitious, technical, experimental; art that is textured, bold, detailed, and unpredictable.
My current work focuses on “The Politics of Black,” "Memory, Migration, and Movement of Black," and "Haircestry". I am drawn to the human condition and all that it encompasses. I often employ the power of the figurative form – whether abstract or representational – to reclaim a vision of people whose bodies or histories I am compelled to account for, value, and memorialize; often – the histories of black and brown people. These representations are deeply connected to my family, the history of enslavement, and my relationship with the people and landscape of the city of Detroit.
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