Artist Talk with R. J. Kern

ARTIST TALK
Wednesday, August 21st
Reception 6:30-7:00PM
Talk Begins 7:00PM

Free and Open to the Public
 
Join us for a discussion with our current featured artist, R. J. Kern.

"Do animals have a claim on history? Is culture expressed in the shape of a beak, girth of an udder or the slope of a snout? With their abbreviated lifespans, do they carry cultural memory in their feathers, fur, and hides? These are the questions R. J. Kern poses in The Best of the Best. With twelve pairs of animals—one female, one male—Kern intertwines the history of animal competitions with the history of photography to explore some of humanity’s most urgent questions about its relationship to its fellow earthly creatures and their interwoven fates. Kern’s intricate prints, which layer salt prints over digital prints, foreground historical inquiry, human intervention, and nature’s persistence."
 
-Excerpt from the essay, Salt of the Earth: R. J. Kern’s The Best of the Best, by Anjuli J. Lebowitz, Department of Photographs, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC