R. J. Kern (b. 1978) is an American artist whose work investigates ideas of home, ancestry, and a sense of place. His portraits focus on the intimate, interdependent relationships of people, animals, and landscape as a means of exploring how ancestry shapes identity and how myth intertwines with personal history.

Kern's work has been featured in National Geographic and was included in group exhibitions at the Zurab Tsereteli Museum of Modern Art, Tbilisi, the National Portrait Gallery, London, and the Yixian International Photo Festival, Anhui, China. Solo exhibitions included the Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, the Masur Museum of Art, Monroe, The Plains Art Museum, Fargo, and Oklahoma State University Museum of Art, Stillwater. Public collections include the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Kern was a 2017 CENTER Choice Award winner, awarded Critical Mass Top 50 (2018, 2021, 2024), and received artist grants from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (2024), Puffin Foundation (2024), and six grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board (2016, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024). Monographs include: "The Sheep and the Goats" (Keher Verlag, 2017) and "The Unchosen Ones: Portraits of an American Pastoral" (MW Editions, 2021). 

He thrives in Minneapolis with his wife and two kids.

Web: www.rjkern.com ; IG: @kernphoto ; Other: http://www.rjkern.com/edu

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