Fern Apfel

Fern Apfel is a Hudson Valley artist specializing in paintings incorporating handwritten 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 the 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, she was awarded the Jane Altes Award for Artist Excellence at the Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy, NY.

Apfel’s paintings are included 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, The Art Students League of NY, Fidelity Investments, NY, Kidder Peabody & Co., and the Capital Group Corporate Collection, London, UK.

Currently, Apfel has work in the exhibition Architect[ural] at The Hyde Collection, where she is honored to be included alongside Richard Anuszkiewicz, Dorothy Dehner, Philip Guston, Ellsworth Kelly, Sol LeWitt, and others. In November, she will participate in a two-person show in the Tremaine Gallery at The Hotchkiss School (Lakeville, CT). Recent exhibitions include Letters Home at Troutbeck (Amenia, NY, solo) curated by The Wassaic Project (Wassaic, NY), a solo presentation at Foreland (Catskill, NY), a group exhibition at Bernay Fine Art (Great Barrington, MA), Movement at the Dorsky Museum at SUNY New Paltz (New Paltz, NY), I Say: Women Artists and the Words They Use at The Hotchkiss School (Lakeville, CT), Abide with Me at The Arts Center of the Capital Region (Troy, NY, solo), and Sacred Geometry at the Woodstock Art Association & Museum (Woodstock, NY, solo).


Artist Statement

Remnants of the past—old stamps, diary pages, and pieces from well-thumbed books—are my subjects. I am a still-life artist, but instead of painting traditional subjects, I paint pictures of paper: letters, playing cards, and other nontraditional objects. This sometimes confuses viewers, as they assume my paintings are collaged, but they are not.

Each letter or piece of paper is painted with multiple layers of acrylic paint, with writing applied using archival pens. I work from real letters and memorabilia gathered over many years and from across the world. I find great beauty in these old letters and objects. They are nostalgic reminders of things that no longer exist and of histories from bygone times. Through old letters and keepsakes, we encounter loved ones, parents, old friends, and even our past selves.

Space and color are key elements in these minimal compositions, as the ephemera transform into abstract shapes. Nudging the boundaries between language, painting, and abstraction, my paintings present life not as then versus now, but as an inescapable circle of time and memory. Although the human figure is absent from my work, my art is deeply rooted in the human condition.


www.fernapfel.com