In qi peng‘s Salt Lake City Fine Arts Examiner interview with April Gornik, qi asks Gornik, who had a solo show at Danese in November 2008, how she feels about current trends in new media and conceptual art. Here’s an excerpt from their lengthy conversation.
qi peng: Do you feel that there is a certain strength in more traditional forms of expression within the scene where curators are hunting for the latest cutting-edge work that may diverge from painting or printmaking on a support?
April Gornik: Conceptual art was popular in the mid-70s when I was in school, and I liked some of it then and feel the same way now, but the intersection of art & technology is not something I’m particularly fascinated by, nor am I adverse to it. As I said before, painting remains unique. The embedding of a person in a work of art by the time, intent and use of paint with which a work is made can’t be imitated by any other medium, and the history of painting also gives it a certain undeniable gravitas. To oppose that history by trying to do something that references and rejects it is nonetheless dependent on it, and it takes the culture to give it meaning. This is why much smart-ass work will probably not survive over centuries, but I could be wrong. It’s imaginable that the culture could become so historically removed that people wouldn’t even have that reference�a frightening thought.
Read the entire interview here.
Look for “The Luminous Landscapes of April Gornik” at The Heckscher Museum, Huntington, NY. May 2�July 5, 2009
