John Gerstner has career experience as a writer, photo-journalist, magazine editor, multi-media artist, video producer, Internet/intranet strategist, and book author/creative director. He authored and edited Genuine Value: The John Deere Journey, a coffee-table art business book named Best Coffee Table Book of 2001. Amidst his corporate career, John has never wavered in his passion for art. His art has been published and exhibited in U.S. shows and galleries and is in private collections worldwide. His latest works combine digital photography and painting.
ARTIST STATEMENT
John Gerstner’s work emerges at the collision of photography, painting, and sculpture, where reality and fiction blur and new possibilities arise. His process is intuitive yet rigorous, rooted in a lifelong questioning of photography’s role as truth-teller. From his earliest double exposures and painted photographs to his current use of digital editing and generative AI imagery, Gerstner has sought to push beyond representation into the realm of the imagined.
He has self-published two photo books: Life as a Beach (2017), pairing Florida beach street photography with one-line sayings, and Scratching the Surface (2020), which showcases his early digitally created images. His decades of work in hybrid media trace a continuous exploration of beauty, truth, and the tension between the real and the artificial.
Gerstner’s aim is not harmony but friction. By disturbing photographs with rough, textured brushstrokes, he creates images that are alluring but ambiguous, mysterious and conflicted. The beauty in his art lies in questions rather than answers — in the unsettled space where human gesture and machine-made image collide. At its core, my practice is also a questioning of the truth of beauty: what we accept as alluring, what we resist, and where those tensions lead.
EDUCATION
- Video Art & Multimedia, MA, University of Iowa, 1989
- Journalism & Mass Communication, MA, University of Iowa, 1984
- Journalism, Kansas State University, BS, 1968.
EXHIBITS AND AWARDS
EXHIBITS
| 2024 | St. Augustine Art Association, St. Augustine, FL, Group Fall Show |
| 2023 | Thrasher-Horne Center, Orange Park, FL, Fall 3-Person Show |
| 2023 | Jones Gallery March Group Show, Kansas City, MO |
| 2023 | Northern Light Gallery, Artist of the Month Exhibition, Online |
| 2023 | Gallerium Art Gallery, Believe Exhibition and Publication, Online |
| 2023 | Northern Light Gallery Group Show, Online |
| 2023 | Gallerium Art Gallery, Exhibition and Publication, Online |
| 2001 | Rock Island Fine Arts Exhibition (honorable mention) |
| 2001 | United Neighbors, Davenport, IA (solo) |
| 1995 | Performing Arts Gallery, Davenport, IA (solo) |
| 1996 | Art From The Neighborhood, Quad City Arts, Rock Island, IL (group) |
| 1996 | Rock Island Fine Arts Exhibition, (group) |
| 1995 | Photo-Link Internet Website (solo) |
| 1994 | Quad-City Arts Council (2-person) |
| 1994 | Artefino Gallery, Charlotte, NC (group) |
| 1993 | NAACP Art Exhibition, Davenport, IA (group) |
| 1993 | University of Iowa Hospitals, Iowa City, IA (solo) |
| 1993 | Corps of Engineers, Arsenal Clock Tower, Rock Island, IL (group) |
| 1993 | CSPS Gallery, Cedar Rapids, IA (group) |
| 1993 | Essence of Diversity, King Center, Rock Island, IL (group) |
| 1992 | A. Allen Albert Gallery, Palm Desert, CA |
| 1990 | Percival Gallery, Des Moines, IA (group) |
| 1989 | Antique Auto Show Benefit (group), Beverly Hills, CA |
| 1989 | Mitchell Museum, Mount Vernon, Il (2-person) |
| 1988 | Quad City Arts Council, Rock Island, IL (3-person) |
| 1988 | Governor’s State University, University Park, IL (2-person) |
| 1987 | Highland Community College, Freeport, IL (solo) |
| 1987 | SPE Photography Conference, University of Iowa (group |
| 1978 | Davenport Art Museum, Davenport, IA (3-person) |
AWARDS
| 2001 | Artist Grant, Quad City Arts, Rock Island, IL |
| 2000 | Artist Grant, Quad City Arts, Rock Island, IL |
| 1997 | Artist Grant, Quad City Arts, Rock Island, IL |
| 1995 | United Way of the Quad Cities Photo Contest, 2nd Prize |
| 1992 | Artist Grant, Quad City Arts, Rock Island, IL |
| 1991 | Artist Grant, Quad City Arts, Rock Island, IL |
| 1986 | Quad City Showcase, Davenport Art Museum, 3rd place |
| 1986 | Artlink Contemporary Artspace, Fort Wayne, IN, award winner |
| 1986 | Gallery of the Old Post Office, Dayton, OH, award winner (2) |
| 1986 | Photo Metro Magazine, 4th Annual Contest, San Francisco (CA |
| 1985 | Rock Island fine Arts Exhibition, 2nd place |
| 1982 | Featured in Pictures For Organizations book by Phil Douglis |
| 1980 | Creativity Annual (Gloria Steinem portrait) |
| 1978 | Gold Quill, Photography Award, International Association of Business Communicators |
| 1976 | Honor Award, Photojournalism, Chicago Business Communicators |