McHenry County College is thrilled to host April Behnke’s solo exhibition, “Off/Grid,” featuring an artist talk on Wednesday, April 1, followed immediately by a reception.

March 9 – April 17, 2026
McHenry County College | Galleries One & Two
8900 U.S. Highway 14, Crystal Lake, IL 60012

Artist Talk & Reception: Wednesday, April 1
2:30-3:30 p.m. — Artist Talk in the Luecht Auditorium, B170 | Zoom available
3:30-4:30 p.m. — Reception in Gallery One, A212

Zoom link: https://mchenrycc.zoom.us/j/95821774254?pwd=rNyZKCS3Ca98vhakYHj2OsY07jdQJp.1

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ARTIST STATEMENT

In “Off/Grid,” Chicago-based artist April Behnke presents a series of paintings that explore perception, structure, and visual instability. The work is rooted in the grid, but deliberately pushes against its order. Behnke’s paintings follow systems of organization while simultaneously disrupting them, creating tension between logic and unpredictability.

The grid in Behnke’s work serves both as a formal tool and as a perceptual guide. It organizes space and reminds viewers that the painting exists as a physical object, with edges, surface, and material presence. Yet the grid is rarely fixed or perfectly aligned. It bends, shifts, and fragments, while shapes and color interplays layered across the surface disrupt the expected order. This balance between structure and visual surprise creates a dynamic viewing experience that shifts between awareness of the painting as a constructed object and immersion in depth or illusion.

Behnke’s paintings often layer multiple organizing systems at once, including grids, diamonds, diagonal lines, and waves. These underlying patterns are partially blocked, overlapped, or shifted by opaque shapes and variations in color or tone, which prevent the eye from settling. Foreground and background relationships are frequently reversed, creating spatial ambiguity. As a result, perception remains active, and the viewer’s eye moves across the surface, noticing new relationships over time.

“Off/Grid” reflects Behnke’s interest in perception as an active experience. The work invites viewers to slow down, test their expectations, and remain engaged as the paintings shift between stability and instability, clarity and ambiguity. Rather than offering fixed meaning, the paintings create space for ongoing visual and mental interaction.

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BIO

April Behnke received her MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her BFA from Cornell University. She has completed residencies at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha and the Slak Foundation in the Netherlands. Behnke has exhibited nationally and internationally, including in Mexico City, Seoul, New York City, Berlin, Chicago, London, and Basel. Her work is included in Georgetown University’s art collection and has been featured in Chicago Gallery News, The Washington Post, Time Out Chicago, and on CBS News, among other media outlets. Recent awards include the Creative Accelerator Grant from the Illinois Arts Council. Behnke is based in Chicago. For more details about Behnke, visit www.aprilbehnke.com and her Instagram @aprilbehnke.

IMAGE CREDIT: April Behnke, “1999,” 2025, Flashe on canvas

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Tags: April Behnke, Crystal Lake, Galleries One & Two, McHenry County, McHenry County College, Off/Grid