An artist from Iowa and his grandson will display their talent during a residency in Lindsborg. Rodger Gerberding of Council Bluffs, Iowa, will be the Artist-in-Residence, Monday, August 2 to Sunday, August 28th at the Red Barn Studio Museum on Main Street in Lindsborg.

According to the studio, Rodger is a multidisciplinary artist active in applied arts, book illustrations, writing and acting. While at the Red Barn, he will continue his concentration on Lindsborg as image-matter, with reference to its people and places.  During this year’s residency, he is also scheduled to have a small showing of his work at the White Peacock, also in Lindsborg, in August.

Rodger will be joined by his grandson, Kellen Rief, an artist working in a variety of mediums to create art that showcases beauty in the grotesque and comedic.  Demons, mutants, machines, skeletons and especially clowns are central figures in most of his work.  The exact meaning of his work is up to the viewer to decide.  Kellen’s work is currently on display in the Noyes Gallery in Lincoln, Nebraska. 

While in Lindsborg, Kellen plans to continue his exploration of the absurdity of life through his multimedia painting. Gerberding’s painting, drawing, collage, and other multimedia work is currently represented by the Noyes Gallery (Lincoln, NE) and Gallery 72/John and Roberta Rogers gallery (Omaha.)  Exhibiting throughout the Midwest and on both coasts, he has garnered a wide variety of awards.  His magazine illustrations number in the high hundreds, with his work featured in both domestic and international periodicals.  He has illustrated/decorated some eighty books, in a variety of genres; his latest, work, for three novels by James Herbert, is due from Centipede Press in 2021/2022.  He has recently completed a series of paintings relating to Sauk City, WI environs and the work of August Derleth, for a new edition of the latter’s Rivers of the Americas book, “THE WISCONSIN.”  The Raymer Society’s Artist in Residence program is sponsored in part by the Kansas Creative Arts Industry Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.