American artist April Gornik works in oil paint, charcoal and lithograph. She is most well-known for creating landscapes – with a twist. She often introduces illusory elements into her work, which is perhaps why she considers herself a conceptual artist rather than a landscape painter. Two of her most famous works exemplify this approach: ‘Storm and Fires’ from 1990 uses pastel and charcoal on paper. It is a landscape that shows the raging of a field fire with a storm in the far-off distance. ‘Blue Moonlight’ was commissioned by the Smithsonian Art Collectors Program in 2007 and is a lithograph that largely uses blue. It depicts the moon’s reflection in a river and has that wistful quality that she is so well-known for. Since her first solo exhibition in 1981, her art has been revered and well-received. Her work sits in many permanent collections across the United States, including at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington DC, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Hood Museum of Art in New Hampshire, the Whitney Museum of American Art, also in New York City, and the Nasher Museum of Art in North Carolina, among others. Gornik has also spoken up about the disparity between the pay and attention male and female artists receive.
