Where Art Works

Est. 1986

April Behnke

Painting and Drawing

A woman with neck-length, wavy light-brunette/dark-blonde hair with a fair complexion and wearing a white, long-sleeve shirt, jeans, a white artist's apron and a beige cap is seen in an art studio with mostly empty, white walls, an easel, a large, unpainted canvas and a colorful painting hanging on a wall behind her and some painting supplies on a stand next to her
I build and break patterns to form images that appear both ordered and unstable as a way to play with the viewer’s perception.
An abstract painting. Large Pink and Purple Geometric Abstraction with Grid and Diamond Patterns.

About

Bio

Award-winning artist April Behnke received her MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011 and has completed residencies at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha and the Slak Foundation in the Netherlands. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, including in Mexico City, Seoul, New York City, Berlin, Chicago, London, and Basel. Her work features in the art collection of Georgetown University and was included in the Rockford Art Museum’s 2022 Midwestern Biennial.

Behnke is represented by Kim Storage Gallery in Milwaukee, WI and is based in Chicago, IL.

Artist Statement

In my work, I build and break patterns to form images that appear both ordered and unstable as a way to play with the viewer’s perception. I paint multiple patterns layered atop one another and then disrupt them by: 1) mixing up spatial cues, like foreground and background, and 2) interrupting them with opaque shapes that cross between the layers. Color relationships are central to this process, serving both to organize and to further destabilize the image.

Contact

Additional Links

All Artists