Join us Wednesday August 21st

Reception 6:30-7pm

Talk begins at 7pm

R. J. Kern (b. 1978) is an American artist whose work explores ideas of home, ancestry, and a sense of place through the interaction of people, animals, and cultural landscapes.

His work has been exhibited in a number of notable exhibitions including the National Portrait Gallery (London, UK), the Museum of Modern Art (Tbilisi, Georgia), the Yixian International Photography Festival (Anhui, China), and a solo exhibition at the Griffin Museum of Photography (Boston, USA).

Awards and accolades include CENTER 2017 Choice Award Winner, Curator's Choice (First Place), PDN's 30 2018, Photolucida Critical Mass 2018 Top 50, the 2017 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize (Finalist), and he is the recipient of two Artist Initiative Grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board (2016, 2018).

Kern's work has been presented in a number of publications, including a feature in National Geographic (November 2017), with his series The Unchosen Ones and Out To Pasture. Kern published his first monograph with Kehrer Verlag titled, The Sheep and the Goats, awarded one of "The Most Beautiful German Books 2018” by Stiftung Buchkunst and awarded Bronze by the prestigious Deutscher Fotobuchpreis 2018-19.

Public collections holding his work include the Center for Creative Photography, the Griffin Museum of Photography, the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art, the Plains Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg and General Mills Corporate Collection, MN.

In 2019, R. J. will have solo shows at the Plains Art Museum in Fargo, ND and the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts in Tampa, FL. He is the commissioned artist for the 2019 Minnesota State Fair.