April Gornik (American, b.1953) is a painter who specializes in landscapes. She was born in Cleveland, OH, and received a BFA in 1976 from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Canada. Gornik considers herself a Conceptual artist, and most often works with oil-based paint on canvas. Her earlier works were painted on plywood. In her paintings, Gornik likes to adopt the style of American Luminists and mix them with strange weather conditions, such as waterspouts. One of Gornik’s best-known works is
Storm and Fires (1990); this work is a drawing in charcoal and pastel on paper. Among her other popular works are
Light and Trees,
Dune Sky, and
Storm Field.
Her pieces combine an evocative use of color and contrast to deliver landscapes with an emotional impact. The Smithsonian Art Collectors Program commissioned the artist to work on a painting used as an educational and cultural tool by the Smithsonian Associates in 2007. The resulting lithograph, which Gornik called
Blue Moonlight, was a huge success. Recently, the lithograph was included in the
Graphic Eloquence, an ongoing exhibition of the S. Dillon Ripley Center, National Mall, Washington, D.C.
In 2004, Gornik had a retrospective organized by the Neuberger Museum of Art, SUNY/Purchase, New York, NY. As part of this retrospective, Gornik traveled to the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, NE, and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, NS.
Gornik has said the artists that have influenced her include
Barbara Takenaga,
Francesco Clemente,
David Salle,
Anselm Kiefer,
Amy Myers, and
Matthew Ritchie. She said she is also influenced by her husband, painter
Eric Fischl. The two artists met while studying at the Nova Scotia Studio of Art and Design. Like other successful artists, Gornik has been involved in a number of exhibitions in different places. She has had solo shows at Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, NY (1981); The Sable-Castelli Gallery, Toronto, Canada (1985); Kohn-Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (1997); and the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA (1998); among others. She has also participated in group exhibitions at the Venice Biennale (1984), the Phoenix Art Museum (1986), Museum of Art of the Rhode Island School of Design (1988), and Barbara Gladstone Gallery in New York (2000). Gornik is the recipient of several awards, such as the Neuberger Museum of Art Annual Honoree (2004) and the Guild Hall Museum’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2003). Her works are found in numerous public collections in galleries such as the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada; Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN; and University Art Museum, C.S.U., Long Beach, CA. Gornik is represented by the
Danese Gallery in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York.
She currently lives and works in New York.