Fern Apfel: Letters Home

Nudging the boundaries between language, painting and abstraction, Fern Apfel’s paintings present life not as “then versus now”, but as an inescapable circle of time and memory. Apfel works from real letters and memorabilia that she has gathered over many years and from all over the world. According to the artist:

I find great beauty in these old letters. They are nostalgic reminders of things that no longer exist and histories of bygone times. In old letters we find loved ones, parents, old friends, and our old selves.

Apfel is a still-life painter. Instead of painting traditional subjects, she paints pictures of paper. Space and color are key elements in these minimal compositions as the ephemera occasionally transform into abstract shapes. We’re left with bits and pieces of representation; traces of memory that are just out of reach, longing to rise to the surface and be acknowledged. In Apfel’s work, those fragments are not only collected but sensitively cared for. We’re in good hands.

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About the Artist

Fern T. Apfel is a Hudson Valley artist who specializes in making paintings with hand written text. She is a two-time recipient of the Individual Artists Grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a four-time recipient of a Mohawk Hudson Regional Purchase Award. In 2022, Apfel received the Yasuo Kuniyoshi Award from the Woodstock Art Association and Museum “given to a contemporary artist who has exemplified outstanding achievement over the past year and has an overall track record of excellence.” In 2024, Apfel was awarded the Jane Altes Award for Artist Excellence at the Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy, NY. 

Apfel’s paintings are in the permanent collections of The Hyde Collection, The Tang Teaching Museum, The Albany Institute of History & Art, SUNY Albany Museum, The Shaker Museum Mount Lebanon, The Columbia County Historical Society and Museum and The Art Students League of NY, Fidelity Investments, NY, Kidder Peabody & Co., Capital Group Corporate Collection, London, UK. as well as numerous private collections.

Recent exhibitions include: Abide with Me at The Arts Center of the Capital Region (Troy, NY, solo), Sacred Geometry at the Woodstock Art Association & Museum (Woodstock, NY, solo), What is Lost? at Garage Gallery (Beacon, NY, solo) Counting the Seconds Between Lightning and Thunder at the Wassaic Project (Wassaic, NY), and Text at Joyce Goldstein Gallery (Chatham, NY). Upcoming exhibitions include Greater Valley Artists at Foreland (Catskill,NY), Movement at the Dorsky Museum at SUNY New Paltz (New Paltz, NY), and I Say:Women Artists and the Words They Use at The Hotchkiss School (Lakeville, CT).

For more info please contact Will Hutnick: will@wassaicproject.org