April Gornik (born 1953,

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

) is an American artist who paints American

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

s. Her realist yet dreamlike paintings and drawings embody oppositions and speak to America's historically conflicted relationship with nature. While she doesn't categorize herself as an environmental artist, she is a passionate supporter of environmental causes and has said, "I have no problem with people reading an ecological message into my work."

Biography

Gornik received in 1976 her B.F.A. from the

Nova Scotia College of Art and Design NSCAD University, also known as the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design or NSCAD, is a public art university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university is a co-educational institution that offers bachelor's and master's degrees. The uni ...

(now called NSCAD University), and while attending the school she met her future husband, painter

Eric Fischl Eric Fischl (born March 9, 1948) is an American painter, sculptor, printmaker, draughtsman and educator. He is known for his paintings depicting American suburbia from the 1970s and 1980s. Life Fischl was born in New York City and grew up on su ...

. Art dealer Ed Thorp hosted her first solo exhibition in 1981, after having caught sight of her paintings while viewing Fischl's work. She is influenced by the feminist consciousness-raising of the late 20th century and, in speaking about female artists who have worked in the shadows of better known male artists, including

Elaine de Kooning Elaine Marie Catherine de Kooning (, née Fried; March 12, 1918 – February 1, 1989) was an Abstract Expressionist and Figurative Expressionist painter in the post-World War II era. She wrote extensively on the art of the period and was an edito ...

and

Lee Krasner Lenore "Lee" Krasner (born Lena Krassner; October 27, 1908 – June 19, 1984) was an American abstract expressionist painter, with a strong speciality in collage. She was married to Jackson Pollock. Although there was much cross-pollination betw ...

, she has said, "It's a problem. Women artists still receive lower prices for their art and remain less shown than their male counterparts." In 2014, FigureGround Press published the monograph ''April Gornik: Drawings'', an extensive look at charcoal drawings done since the mid 1980s. The book includes essays by

Steve Martin Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He has won five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 2013. Additionally, he was nominated ...

and

Archie Rand Archie Rand (born 1949) is an American artist from Brooklyn, New York, United States. Education and career Born in Brooklyn, Rand received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in cinegraphics from the Pratt Institute, having studied previously at the Art St ...

, an interview with

Lawrence Weschler Lawrence Weschler (born 1952) is an author of works of creative nonfiction. A graduate of Cowell College of the University of California, Santa Cruz (1974), Weschler was for over twenty years (1981–2002) a staff writer at ''The New Yorker'', w ...

, and a digital download of a piano and cello composition by composer

Bruce Wolosoff Bruce Wolosoff (born March 27, 1955 in New York City) is an American classical composer, pianist, and educator.B ...

, played by Wolosoff and

Sara Sant'Ambrogio Sara Sant'Ambrogio (born 1962) is an American cellist best known as a member of the Eroica Trio. She was born in Boston and began her studies with her father, John Sant'Ambrogio, principal cellist with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. She was ...

of the

Eroica Trio The Eroica Trio is an American piano trio consisting of Erika Nickrenz, piano; Sara Parkins, violin; and Sara Sant'Ambrogio, cello. The trio take their name from Beethoven's Eroica Symphony. They have toured and recorded widely, and released si ...

. Gornik has remained committed to helping her community and making a difference, Gornik and her husband invested in 26 acres of land in which they donated in 2017 to the town of North Haven to preserve land. She also adds her funds to the Southampton Animal Shelter as well as being involved with the Eastville Historical Society.

Collections

Various permanent art collections include Gornik's work, including: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met), the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA),

Hood Museum of Art The Hood Museum of Art is owned and operated by Dartmouth College, located in Hanover, New Hampshire, in the United States. The first reference to the development of an art collection at Dartmouth dates to 1772, making the collection among the o ...

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

Nasher Museum of Art The Nasher Museum of Art (previously the Duke University Museum of Art) is the art museum of Duke University, and is located on Duke's campus in Durham, North Carolina, United States. The Nasher, along with Dartmouth's Hood Museum of Art and Pr ...

, The Museum of Fine Arts, and many others. Two of her paintings, ''Virga'' (1992) and ''Storm and Fires'' (1990) are held in the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

collection. In 2007, the Smithsonian Art Collectors Program commissioned Gornik to produce a print to benefit the educational and cultural programs of the

Smithsonian Associates The S. Dillon Ripley Center, better known simply as the Ripley Center, is one of the buildings of the Smithsonian Institution series of museums located in the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The above-ground portion is only a small pagoda, and ...

. The lithograph, entitled ''Blue Moonlight'' hangs in the ongoing exhibition ''Graphic Eloquence'' in the S. Dillon Ripley Center in the

National Mall The National Mall is a Landscape architecture, landscaped park near the Downtown, Washington, D.C., downtown area of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. It contains and borders a number of museums of the Smithsonian Institut ...

, Washington, D.C.

Awards

Gornik has received several awards: the

Neuberger Museum of Art Neuberger Museum of Art is located in Purchase, New York, United States. It is affiliated with Purchase College, part of the State University of New York system. It is the nation's tenth-largest university museum. The museum is one of 14 sites on ...

Annual Honoree (2004), the 18th annual Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Honoree (2003) by the Guild Hall of East Hampton, and the Award of Excellence for Artistic Contributions to the Fight Against AIDS from the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR).

Bibliography

* *Kuspit, Donald. ''April Gornik: Paintings and Drawings''. San Francisco: Neuberger Museum and ''Hudson Hills Press'', 2006. ''April Gornik: Paintings and Drawings''
a book review

References

External links

*
April Gornik interviewed by Robert Ayers, May 2009Gornik's ''Blue Moonlight'', The Smithsonian Art Collectors Program
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gornik, April 1953 births Living people Artists from Cleveland NSCAD University alumni American women painters Painters from Ohio 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women artists