April Gornik

Gornik has received several awards: the Neuberger Museum of Art 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).

Two of her paintings, Virga (1992) and Storm and Fires (1990) are held in the Smithsonian American Art Museum 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 lithograph, entitled Blue Moonlight hangs in the ongoing exhibition Graphic Eloquence in the S. Dillon Ripley Center in the National Mall, Washington, D.C.

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 and Lee Krasner, she has said, "It's a problem. Women artists still receive lower prices for their art and remain less shown than their male counterparts."

Gornik received in 1976 her B.F.A. from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (now called NSCAD University), and while attending the school she met her future husband, painter Eric Fischl.

April Gornik (born 1953, Cleveland, Ohio) is an American artist who paints American landscapes. 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."