April Gornik 2026

APRIL GORNIK

HOW TO DO THINGS WITH THE LANDSCAPE: THE PAINTINGS OF APRIL GORNIK

Richard Deming

“The field that you are standing before appears to have the same proportions as your own life.”

—John Berger

Landscape painting begins in defeat. That is, of course, a broad claim, but considering that a painting’s fidelity to a given, real setting will always run into limitation, it holds. The world, even at its most local, is far more complex and variegated than any painting could ever hope to be. In past eras, when human beings had a far different relationship to space and place, landscape painters like Thomas Cole, John Constable, or Caspar David Friedrich, could evoke the awe and fear of vast vistas. In a shorthand way, we call this feeling of being overwhelmed “the Sublime.” In some ways, failure is the point. Paintings can suggest or capture aspects of landscapes, and of course they can be powerful and transporting. Yet it is impossible to forget that they can never be as powerful as nature itself, nor can they ever be complete.

“Well, you should see the real thing,” such paintings seem, at some level, to insist. Come to think of it, that’s a bit like what exhibition catalogs do in terms of the images they provide. In many ways, the traditional landscape painting points past itself, no matter how technically deft its achievements might be.

Then again, a landscape isn’t a thing. It isn’t exactly a place. It is a scene—mutable, dynamic—with a vantage point and a perspective built in. One always sees a landscape from some point in space. I might extend this and say that a painting isn’t well-described as a thing, either. Is it an event? Perhaps. In the right conditions, something’s happening—we’re looking; we’re seeing.

The ideals of landscape painting changed with impressionism, however. The change didn’t involve the vastness of space, though. We can argue that the soul of landscape painting was the complicated ways of rendering what it felt like to be at a particular place during a particular moment. A painting isn’t actually a moment, either. It is an insight built up over time—one arrived at by layers of paint, countless brushstrokes and blotting, all coursing over the weave of the canvas. If anything, it is a revelation of our own threaded experiences of psychology, emotion, and corporality—of how we are as bodies and beings in a world ever in flux. Thus, one of the things we are seeing when we look at a landscape painting is an artist’s sustained commitment to witnessing and to making that experience available—not despite the limitations of paintings but because of them. Within those limitations are the aspects of seeing.

Why I am rehearsing—hopefully in an interesting way—this sketch of the history of landscape painting is because I want to give context for how and why April Gornik’s landscape paintings shift us from assessing verisimilitude to feeling some deeper, embodied and—I’ll say it—spiritual experience. We turn to her paintings not for accuracy and veracity but for instances of intimacy and generosity. I am not saying they represent intimacy; I am saying the paintings themselves are acts of intimacy and generosity.

The eye has two motions, especially in terms of landscape. It shoots outward toward the horizon, reaching into its own boundaries at the far edges of what it can discern. In doing so, however, eyesight also pulls everything toward the viewer, holding whatever it can grasp in view as much as it can. Even at the level of physics, light bounces off physical objects and is taken in by the eye. With this in mind, vision is no static condition: The eyes constantly focus and refocus, blurring the distant, then blurring what is near. We call the eye’s quick, jerking movements from one point to another saccades. On the other hand, accommodation is the name for the adjustments that the eye’s lens makes in focusing, defocusing, and refocusing. All these actions happen in response to Gornik’s paintings: the eye flitting between the far and the near, the low and the high, or tracing an arc rising off the face of the water in Lightbound (2025), for instance, and then flying past the edges of far clouds. Those actions are also found in the paintings, if you look closely enough. The paintings themselves seem to enact that process of seeing. That is to say, Gornik consistently shows us what seeing feels like.

If you give but a quick glance at one of Gornik’s paintings, you might take in its precision—the heft of the clouds, the shading of field grasses. To leave it at that and move on would be a mistake, one that a person is apt to make in our all-too-common perpetually distracted state. Intimacy, I want to offer, takes time. Gornik’s work rewards attention with what it reveals, as one notices that it is not pictorial in a conservative sense, nor is it simply impressionistic. The elements of painterly abstraction—the softness, the dreamlike blurring—becomes more visible around the specific and exact. We see only as much as we look. We must give time to Gornik’s representations of distance and space. Not to do so means we might not be doing it correctly. We might not be offering our own devotional acts of attention. And what else is a landscape painting—at least in Gornik’s hands—but a form of careful, devotional attention?

Gornik’s paintings put in motion the eye’s shifts—in and out, forward and back. Whether intentionally or not, she indicates that seeing is something we do rather than something that merely happens. It can be a passive or an active process. In other words, when we stand in front of a canvas of Gornik’s and give it the time it asks for, the body takes part in what it sees, gauges that tension between distance and proximity.

Ultimately, that humanizes these paintings of places where there are no people. There is no human figure nestled somewhere in, say, Schiele Winter Light (2025). The title does invoke Egon Schiele, a painter important to Gornik. Does it refer to the light of inner intensity that pushes out from Schiele’s landscapes? Or is it an allusion to the Viennese modernist’s belief that “Bodies have their own light, which they consume to live.” In the case of Schiele Winter Light, the bodies are outside the painting, not inside it, absorbing light cast off from the art itself. Do we consume art to live? Maybe the argument is that we don’t do so often enough.

Within Gornik’s landscapes, there is no one, no figure, whose reaction shapes or guides our experience from within the spaces we see. This means there is no real narrative direction. I am not sure we can describe every action that occurs as narrative. Even if the paintings provide unfolding actions of the eye that are tied to emotional responses, that isn’t a narrative sequence; it means we can place our eyes anywhere we want on the canvas. One time we might start in the upper-left-hand corner; another time we might start in the middle; at another, we might

start seven inches diagonally across from the center-right side. There might be elements that attract the eye, of course, but these aren’t framed the way that a living figure placed in the scene almost would frame them. This nonnarrative—let’s call it lyric—structure allows for the generosity, the openness that I mentioned earlier, that are a crucial part of Gornik’s work, from her large canvases to her smaller ones. Begin where you begin, they seem to suggest. Where we choose to put our eye says more about us than it says about the specific arrangement of the shapes within the frame.

The Presocratic philosopher Heraclitus argued that we can never step in the same river twice. A river is not the same from moment to moment, but then again, what is? Everything is flux. Fair enough. We can look at the same painting by April Gornik, but we are not the same, where we stand is not the same, where our eyes alight—by choice or chance—is not the same. And the painting reveals how it is an imperceptible yet persistent activity as well as a place setting itself into view—but only in that changeable moment, a moment that isn’t really a moment. It is instead the imagination of a moment that this artist coaxes into duration. Whether someone looks or not, it hovers in view.

Our eyes take part in the work of Gornik’s art. They move, shift, and turn as our gaze travels over the paintings. The images may initially seem like still scenes, ripe for meditation, but instead they are opportunities for attention. There is no human subject within the paintings. But by standing in front of them, we provide that. We are there and not there in the field, at the edge of the water, eyes cast skyward. In the end—or maybe I should say from the beginning—April Gornik’s paintings aren’t haunted spaces so much as events that allow us to haunt them. We see and linger, our gaze quickened by what becomes visible, little by little.

Richard Deming, a poet, essayist, and critic, is the author of such books as This Exquisite Loneliness, Art of the Ordinary, and Day for Night. He teaches at Yale University.

APRIL GORNIK

Born in 1953 in Cleveland, OH

Lives and works in Sag Harbor, NY

EDUCATION

1976

BFA, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, Canada

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2026

“Liminal States,” Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY

2023

Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY

2020

Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY

2016

Danese/Corey Gallery, New York, NY

2015

Pace Prints, New York, NY

2014

Danese/Corey, New York, NY

2013

The Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH

2012

Barbara Edwards Contemporary, Toronto, Canada

Danese Gallery, New York, NY

The Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY

Danese Gallery, New York, NY

Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH

2005

Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Canada

Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, NE

Danese Gallery, New York, NY 2004

Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, Purchase, NY 2003

Danese Gallery, New York, NY

Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV

Danese Gallery, New York, NY

Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, NY

Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, East Hampton, NY

1998

University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

1997

Turner & Runyon Gallery, Dallas, TX

1996

Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, NY

1995

Kohn Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

1994

Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, NY

Guild Hall, East Hampton, NY

Offshore Gallery, East Hampton, NY

1993

Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA

Mary Ryan Gallery, New York, NY

1992

Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, NY

1990

Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, NY

1988

Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA

The Sable-Castelli Gallery, Toronto, Canada

1987

Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, NY

1986

Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, NY

1985

The Sable-Castelli Gallery, Toronto, Canada

Galerie Springer Berlin, Berlin, Germany

1984

Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, NY

Texas Gallery, Houston, TX

1983

Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH

Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, NY

1982

Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, NY

University of Colorado Art Galleries, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO

1981

Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, NY

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2026

“THIS LAND: Considering The American Landscape” (curated by Donna De Salvo and Seph Rodney), The Church, Sag Harbor, NY

“250 Years of Art on Long Island,” Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, NY

2025

“Cornelia in Context,” Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York, NY

“DayDream” (curated by James Salomon), Leonhardt Galleries, Berkshire Botanical Garden, Stockbridge, MA

“Mother Nature in the Bardo,” BlackBook, New York, NY

“Eric Fischl/April Gornik,” The National Arts Club, New York, NY

2024

“All Bangers, All The Time: 25th Anniversary Exhibition,” Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY

“Couples Squared” (curated by Phyllis Tuchman), Southampton Arts Center, Southampton, NY

“Beyond the Horizon: Interpretations of the Landscape from Women in the Permanent Collection,” Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY

2023

“50 Paintings,” Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI

“American Women Artists from the Collection of Edward T. Pollack ‘55,” The Dove Block Project, Geneva, NY

2022

“Boil, Toil & Trouble” (curated by Zoe Lukov), Art in Common, Miami, FL

“Summer Drift,” Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY

“HOLY WATER” (curated by Zoe Lukov), Eric Firestone Gallery, East Hampton, NY

“COMPETERE: An Exhibition of Artist Couples,” The Bo Bartlett Center, Columbus State University, Columbus, GA

“Empire of Water,” The Church, Sag Harbor, NY

2021

“American Landscapes,” The David C. Driskell Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD

2020

“It’s All About Water” (curated by Elizabeth Fiore & Melissa Feldman), The Storefront, Bellport, NY

“Do You Think It Needs a Cloud?,” Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY

2019

“That 80’s Show,” Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, NY

“LandEscape: New Visions of the Landscape from the Early 20th and 21st Centuries,” Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY

2017

“Black & White,” Tripoli Gallery, Wainscott, NY

“Photography of Place,” Palm Beach Photographic Centre, West Palm Beach, FL

2016

“Water|Bodies,” Southampton Arts Center, Southampton, NY

2015

“Seeing Nature: Landscape Masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection,” Portland Museum of Art, Portland, OR; traveled to The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA; and the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA

“Frontiers Reimagined,” 56th International Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Museo di Palazzo Grimani, Venice, Italy

2013

“The Beacon,” Salomon Contemporary, New York, NY

“A Discourse on Plants,” RH Gallery, New York, NY

2011

“Bon à Tirer,” Barbara Edwards Contemporary, Toronto, Canada

“The Value of Water: Sustaining a Green Planet,” Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York, NY

“Works on Paper,” Danese Gallery, New York, NY

“Delinear,” Barbara Edwards Contemporary, Toronto, Canada

“Joe Fig: Inside the Painter’s Studio,” Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA

“In the Presence of Light,” Danese Gallery, New York, NY

2010

“Works on Paper,” Danese Gallery, New York, NY

“Gallery Dedication Group Show,” Charles P. Sifton Gallery, New York, NY

2009

“Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts,” American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY

“The Print Club of New York: Seventeen Years of Commissioned Prints,” The National Arts Club, New York, NY

“Mixed Greens,” Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY

“Then & Now: Contemporary Artists Revisit the Past,” Arkell Museum, Canajoharie, NY

“Forces of Nature,” Danese Gallery, New York, NY

“The Tree,” James Cohan Gallery, Shanghai, China

“American Landscapes: Treasures from the Parrish Art Museum,” Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY

2008

“Inspired by the Light: Landscapes by East End Masters,” Guild Hall, East Hampton, NY

“From Here to the Horizon: American Landscape Prints,” Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

2007

“Audacity in Art: Selected Works from Central Florida Collections,” Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL

“Paper Trails: A Century of Women’s Prints, Drawings, & Photographs,” Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

“Monoprints,” Pace Prints, New York, NY

“Picturing Long Island,” The Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY

2006

“New Old Masters,” National Museum in Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland

“Tapestries,” Sullivan Goss Art Gallery, Montecito, CA

2005

“Landscapes and Cityscapes,” Marlborough Gallery, New York, NY

“The 237th Summer Exhibition, 2005,” Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom

“Artists and Nature on Eastern Long Island: 1940s to the Present,” Spanierman Gallery, East Hampton, NY

“Contemporary Woodblock Prints,” Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery, Osaka, Japan

“Drawn to Cleveland,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH

2004

“Images of Time and Place: Contemporary Views of Landscape,” Lehman College Art Gallery, Lehman College, New York, NY

“A Celebration of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Honorees in the Visual Arts,” Guild Hall, East Hampton, NY

“North Fork/South Fork: East End Art Now,” Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY

“Art from the Paris Review,” Guild Hall, East Hampton, NY

“Temporalscape,” Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2003

“Graphic Masters: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum,” The Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY; traveled to Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA; Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN; Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY; and Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND

2002

“Curious Terrain,” Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY

“Northern Light,” Danese Gallery, New York, NY

“Darkness and Brightness,” Sears-Peyton Gallery, New York, NY

2001

“Inaugural Exhibition,” Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

“The Private Collection of Steve Martin,” Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, Las Vegas, NV

“Follies,” Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY

“Peaks,” Kagan Martos Gallery, New York, NY

“Stormy Weather,” Steven Scott Gallery, Baltimore, MD

2000

“Drawings 2000,” Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY

“Art of the 80s,” Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY

“Group Landscape Exhibition,” Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA

“Works on Paper 2000,” Residence of the American Ambassador of The Slovak Republic, Bratislava, Slovakia

“The Perpetual Well: Contemporary Art from the Jewish Museum,” Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL

1999

“Water: A Contemporary American View,” Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; traveled to the Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL; and the Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI

“Why Draw a Landscape?,” Crown Point Press, San Francisco, CA and Karen McCready Gallery, New York, NY

“A Place in the Sun,” Steven Scott Gallery, Baltimore, MD

“As Far as the Eye Can See,” Atlanta College of Art Gallery, Atlanta College of Art, Atlanta, GA

1998

“Encyclopedia,” Turner and Runyon Gallery, Dallas, TX

“Gifts for a New Century,” Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY

“After Nature,” Herter Art Gallery, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA

“New Releases: April Gornik, Tom Marioni, Pat Steir,” Crown Point Press, San Francisco, CA

“Cityscape/Landscape,” Karen McCready Fine Art, New York, NY

“80s Artists Then and Now,” Elizabeth Mayer Fine Art, New York, NY

“Selections from the Collection: Guild Hall,” Guild Hall, East Hampton, NY

“Cleveland Collects,” The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

“The Joe Wilfer Show: Collaborations in Paper and Printmaking,” Plattsburgh State Art Museum, State University of New York at Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh, NY

“The Centennial Open,” Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY

“Divining Nature,” Southeast Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC

“Prints by Painters,” Paul Kuhn Gallery, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

“The Portraits Speak: Chuck Close in Conversation with 27 of his Subjects,” Dorfman Projects, New York, NY

“Movements of Grace: Spirit in the American Landscape,” Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York, NY

“Landscapes,” Meyerson & Nowinski Art Associates, Seattle, WA

1997

“In Plain Sight,” Center for Curatorial Studies Museum, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY

“A Reversal of Scale,” Turner and Runyon Gallery, Dallas, TX

“Woodwork,” Fisher Landau Center for Art, Long Island City, NY

“Eight From Ohio: In and Out of Bounds,” Hammond Harkins Galleries, Columbus, OH

1996

“Destiny Manifest: American Landscape Paintings in the Nineties,” Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

“20/20: The Visionary Legacy of Doris Chanin Freedman,” Albright College Center for the Arts, Albright College, Reading, PA

“Water,” James Graham & Sons, New York, NY

“Master Workshop Exhibition,” Fine Arts Gallery at Southampton College, Southampton College, Southampton, NY

1995

“Re-Presenting Representation II,” Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY

“Elementum,” Mary Ryan Gallery, New York, NY

“Revisiting Landscape,” California Center for the Arts, Escondido, CA

“100 Personal Heroes Part 2,” Galerie De La Tour, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

“American Art Today: Night Paintings,” Frost Art Museum, Florida International University, Miami, FL

1994

“Inspired by Nature,” Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, Purchase, NY

“Changing Views,” Feigen Inc., Chicago, IL

“Timely and Timeless,” The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT

“Landscape Not Landscape,” Gallery Camino Real, Boca Raton, FL

“Mountains of the Mind: American Mountain Landscape Painting,” Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO

1993

“Living With Art: The Collection of Ellyn and Saul Dennison,” Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ

“25 Years,” Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Cleveland, OH

“Landscape as Metaphor,” Eli Whitney Museum, Hamden, CT

1992

“Four Friends,” The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; traveled to the Rayburn Foundation, New York, NY; Ringling Museum, Sarasota, FL; and the Oklahoma Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK

“Selective Vision,” Transamerica Pyramid Lobby, San Francisco, CA

1991

“Romance and Irony in Recent American Art,” Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY

“Presswork: Art of Women Printmakers,” National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.

“Landscapes,” Mary Ryan Gallery, New York, NY

“Landscape Painting,” Annina Nosei Gallery, New York, NY

1990

“Terra Incognita,” Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

“Contemporary American Artists,” Residence of the Ambassador, Mexico City, Mexico

“The (Un)Making of Nature,” Whitney Downtown at Federal Reserve Plaza, New York, NY and Fairfield County, CT

“Romance & Irony in Recent American Art,” The Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia

“Harmony & Discord: American Landscape Today,” Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA

“Didier Nolet: Dreams of a Man Awake,” Chicago Public Library Cultural Center, Chicago, IL

1989

“10 + 10: Contemporary Soviet & American Painters,” Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX; traveled to San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI; Corcoran Gallery of Art, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.; Artists’ Union Hall of the Tretyakov

Embankment, Moscow, Soviet Union; Central Artists’ Hall, Tbilisi, Georgia; and the Central Exhibition Hall, Leningrad, Soviet Union

“1989 Biennial Exhibition,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

“Painting Horizons: Jane Freilicher, Albert York, April Gornik,” Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY

“A Decade of Drawings: 1980-1989,” Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

“A Certain Slant of Light: The Contemporary American Landscape,” The Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH

“The 1980s: Prints from the Collection of Joshua P. Smith,” National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

“Nocturnal Visions in Contemporary Painting,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

“Art of the ‘80s from the Chemical Bank Collection,” Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ

“American Art Today: Contemporary Landscape,” Frost Art Museum, Florida International University, Miami, FL

1988

“Art for Your Collection,” Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

“Drawing on the East End, 1940-1988,” Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY

“Changing Perspectives in Contemporary Representations,” Marlborough Gallery, New York, NY

“Realism Today: American Drawings from the Rita Rich Collection,” National Academy of Design, New York, NY; traveled to Smith College, Northampton, MA; Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AK; and the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH

1987

“Art of the Twentieth Century,” Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

“The New Romantic Landscape,” Whitney Museum of American Art, Stamford, CT

“1976-1986: Selections from the Edward R. Downe, Jr. Collection,” Wellesley College Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA

“Boundless Realism: Contemporary Landscape Painting in the West,” The Rockwell Museum, Corning, NY

1986

“New Narrative Painting: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art,” Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ

“A Contemporary View of Nature,” The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT

“Art on Paper,” Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC

“Spectrum, Natural Settings,” Corcoran Gallery of Art, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

“Still Life/Life Still,” Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

“Public and Private: American Prints Today, 24th National Print Exhibition,” Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY

“Landscape in the Age of Anxiety,” Lehman College Art Gallery, Lehman College, New York, NY

1985

“American Painting 1975-1985,” Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO

“Night Lights,” Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, OH

“Currents,” Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA

“Sources of Light,” Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

1984

“Paradise Lost/Paradise Regained: American Visions of the New Decade,” United States Pavilion (organized by

The New Museum of Contemporary Art), 41st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy; traveled to Lisbon, Portugal; Madrid, Spain; Athens, Greece; Belgrade, Yugoslavia; and Budapest, Hungary

“A Celebration of American Women Artists, Part II: The Recent Generation,” Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, NY

“The Innovative Landscape,” Holly Solomon, New York, NY

“A Tribute To James and Mari Michener,” Archer M. Huntington

Art Gallery, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX

SELECT AWARDS

2025

Medal of Honor for Achievement in Fine Arts, The National Arts Club, New York, NY

2004

Annual Honoree, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, Purchase, NY

2003

Lifetime Achievement Award, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY

SELECT COLLECTIONS

Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH

Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada

Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX

Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID

Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, NY

Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA

Castellani Art Museum, Niagara University, Lewiston, NY

Cincinnati Museum, Cincinnati, OH

City College of New York, New York, NY

Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Colby College Museum of Art, Colby College, Waterville, ME

Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX

Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH

Douglas S. Cramer Foundation, Los Angeles, CA

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

Fisher Landau Center for Art, Long Island City, NY

Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN

Foundation Art Collection, Hudson County Community College, Jersey City, NJ

Guild Hall, East Hampton, NY

Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA

Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV

The Jewish Museum, New York, NY

Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst, MA

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX

Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.

Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, Purchase, NY

New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ

Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL

Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY

Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN

Smith College Museum of Art, Smith College, Northampton, MA

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

United States Embassy, Beijing, China

United States Embassy, Moscow, Russia

Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

William and Florence Schmidt Art Center, Belleville, IL

Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

Published on the occasion of the exhibition

APRIL GORNIK

LIMINAL STATES

2 April – 9 May 2026

Miles McEnery Gallery 525 West 22nd Street New York NY 10011

tel +1 212 445 0051 www.milesmcenery.com

Publication © 2026 Miles McEnery Gallery

All rights reserved

Essay © 2026 Richard Deming

Associate Director Julia Schlank, New York, NY

Photography by Dan Bradica, New York, NY

Christopher Burke Studios, New York, NY

Catalogue layout by Allison Leung

ISBN: 979-8-3507-6287-7

Cover: World of Light (for GMH), (detail), 2026