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“The Unchosen Ones” to be exhibited at Windgate Gallery through Nov. 4

UA-PTC Windgate Gallery will exhibit The Unchosen Ones, a series of photographs by award-winning, international photographer R.J. Kern through Nov. 8.

The Unchosen Ones features a series of portraits taken in his adopted home state of Minnesota of youth contestants, some as young as four that have entered 4-H livestock competitions at county fairs for animals they had spent a year raising. None of the youth contestants photographed succeeded in winning an award, despite the obvious care they had given to their animals.

The Unchosen Ones depicts the bloom of youth and the mettle of the young people who grow up on farms, reminding us how resilient children can be when confronted with life’s inevitable disappointments. The portraits capture a particular America, a rural pastoral world, and a time in life when the layered emotions of youth are laid bare.

Admission to the Windgate Gallery is free and open to the public, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. and closed on the weekend.

About the Artist:

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 intimate, interdependent relationships of people, animals, and landscape as a means of exploring how ancestry shapes identity and how myth intertwines with personal history. His camera has led him from an inquiry into his lineage in the farming communities of Scandinavia and Ireland to the examination of similar communities near his home in Minnesota. Increasingly, his attention has been captured by the next generation of young people, who may or may not be the stewards of rural communities and economies in the future.

Artist website: rjkern.com

Pictured, from left: Rylee and Nelly, Clay County, Minnesota, 2020; Gus and Doolittle, Mahnomen County Fair, Minnesota, 2016