Gilda Snowden (1954 - 2014) was an African-American artist, educator and mentor from Detroit, Michigan.
Video Gilda Snowden
Early life and education
Snowden was born in Detroit in 1954. She attended Cass Technical High School with a focus on fashion design. Between 1972-1979 Snowden earned her earned her BFA in Advertising Design and Painting, MA in Painting, and MFA in Painting from Wayne State University. In 1985 she became a professor in Department of Fine Arts at the College for Creative Studies, Detroit. She was also gallery director of the Detroit Repertory Theatre prior to her death in 2014.
Maps Gilda Snowden
Work
Gilda Snowden's works are predominately abstracts that utilize vivid color. The city of Detroit sparked several bodies of work. Her Flora Urbana series features abstracted floral forms, in encaustic, inspired by the gardens now tended by Detroit citizens on plots where buildings once stood. City Album: Department of Railways 1929 is an example from a series of charcoal rubbings she made of the Detroit manhole covers she discovered riding though the city on her bicycle.
Snowden describes all of her works as autobiographical including an extensive series Self-Portrait of over one hundred self-portraits of the back of her head and shoulders. She has cited her experience of race, gender and fears she felt as a child as the inspiration for this series. She began again with the series after growing her hair out in the 2000s and using computer projections to help create her pieces. Monument [1988], found at the Detroit Institute of Arts, as "a chronicle of my family on their travels from Alabama to Detroit. We are all looking for something, all traveling from here to there."
Collections
Snowden's work is held in permanent collections including:
- Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, USA
- Wayne State University Art Collection, Detroit, USA
- David C. Driskell Center, Maryland, USA
Awards and fellowships
Among the honors which Gilda Snowden has earned are:
- Kresge Arts Fellowship (2009)
- Michigan Council For the Arts Individual Artists Grant (Painting 1982, 1985, 1990), (Sculpture 1988)
- Graduate Professional Scholarship, Wayne State University, (1977-79)
- Tannahill Faculty Grant, Center for Creative Studies (1990)
- Arts Midwest NEA Regional Fellowship (1990)
Selected exhibitions
Gilda Snowden's work has been featured in gallery and museum exhibitions including:
- Sherry Washington Gallery, Detroit, USA Flora Urbana: New Paintings by Gilda Snowden (2008)
- Marianne Boesky Gallery, Chelsea, USA Another Look at Detroit (Part I and II) (2014)
- J.L. Hudson Gallery, Detroit, USA (1982)
- Park West Gallery, Southfield, MI, USA (1982)
- Artcite Gallery, Windsor, Ontario, Canada (1984)
- Cranbook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI USA (1984)
- Race Street Gallery, Flint, MI USA (1984)
- Wayne State Community Arts Gallery, Detroit, USA (1985)
- Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, USA (1985)
- Mt. Clemens Art Center, Mt. Clemens, MI USA (1985)
- Artemisia Gallery, Chicago, IL USA (1986)
- Cranbook Academy of Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI USA (1987)
- Laundale Art Center, University of Houston, Houston, TX USA (1987)
- Nawara Gallery, Walled Gate, MI USA (1987)
- The Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL USA (1987)
- University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI USA (1988)
- Diverse Works Gallery, Houston, TX USA (1988)
- Meadowbrook Art Gallery, Oakland University, Rochester, MI USA (1989)
- Slusser Gallery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI USA (1989)
- Pontiac Art Center, Pontiac, MI USA (1989)
- Mark Masuoka Gallery, Las Vegas, NV USA (1990)
- Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit USA (1991)
Legacy
The Gilda Awards, funded by the The Kresge Foundation since 2015, honor Gilda Snowden's lifetime of work mentoring Detroit area emerging artists.
References
External links
- Gilda Snowden Oral History Interview
- http://www.kresgeartsindetroit.org/portfolio-posts/gilda-snowden
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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