April Gornik holds a deep reverence for the natural world. Her landscapes depict the grandiosity of nature using a mixture of abstract and surreal imagery that she has taken from her own memories, dreams and photographs. She consistently explores the concept of space and light, which gives her work a psychological charge, and urges the viewer to reflect on themes such as mortality, sexuality and fear. She describes her large-scale canvases as “contemplative objects” (“Oral history interview with April Gornik”, 3–5 June 2008. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution), as they allow for reflection and solitude.

A. Gornik was born in Cleveland, Ohio into a family that helped foster her creativity. She credits her mother with pushing her to enrol at the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA), where she spent four years learning foundational painting methods. In 1972, a year before she intended to graduate, she transferred from CIA and enrolled in the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) as a conceptual artist. During these studies, she explored the interaction between light and dark spaces found in nature and, in doing so, accidentally created a landscape painting. After years of experimenting with materials and styles, she found traditional canvases and oil paint to be the best way to capture light.

She began painting on an even larger scale in the late 1970s. As her ideas grew, A. Gornik’s work could no longer fit on the confines of a standard 4 x 8 foot sheet of plywood. Drawing from her subconscious and imagined environments, her landscapes captured theatrical moments meant to immerse the viewer. In Storm and Fires (1990), her use of high contrast captures the impending doom of the storm, yet still highlights the daybreak to come. While attempting to paint luminosity, she simultaneously leans into the disturbing nature of the shadows that follow from light.

After moving to New York City in 1978, she immersed herself in the local art scene, and quickly found representation at the Edward Thorp Gallery. She was recognised with three solo exhibitions from 1981 to 1983, and her work was selected for the 1989 Whitney Biennial and the 41st and 56th editions of the Venice Biennale. She was represented by the Danese/Corey gallery from 2014, and by the Miles McEnery gallery from 2019. Her work is included in major private and museum collections throughout the United States, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington.

In 2021, A. Gornik co-founded The Church, a non-profit organisation in Sag Harbor, New York, alongside her husband Eric Fischl (b. 1948). After years of working as an activist to preserve the integrity of the town, A. Gornik created The Church to offer an accessible space for artists to engage with the community. This renovated and repurposed Methodist church now hosts an interdisciplinary residency programme supporting creatives. A. Gornik’s work has provided a space to contemplate the sensual side of nature and all its mysteries. The Church extends this same offer to the town’s residents as an ideal setting for the next series of “contemplative objects”.