Artist Andre Barker is a Detroit born and bred painter. Since graduating from Wayne State University and Columbia College Chicago, he spends his time schooling the next generation of artists as a professor. 

In Barker's latest exhibition, he responds to the social and political pressures that make daily life difficult for Black Americans. He illustrates simple acts like existing and rest as mechanisms to find peace and power amid those struggles through his portraits of Black life in Detroit. Barker's exhibition entitled "Rest Is" is currently on display at the M Contemporary Art gallery in Ferndale through Feb. 14.