Gilda Snowden, Lot #804.
February 11, 2019
Gilda Snowden, Lot #804. c.1987. Mix Media.
Gilda Snowden stood at the forefront of the Cass Corridor arts movement and Detroit art. Her art was her greatest biography. Through abstract expressionism, she found vivid ways to tell her story. Perhaps Lot #804 is a puzzle piece, its edges a mixture of smooth and jagged as one examines its shape. Sharp flashes of orange contrast with twisting reds and browns, partially covering memoirs of the past. The newspapers fall flat against the work’s surface, but the stories they tell retain their authenticity. Her encaustics are unpredictable, but provide the viewer with lush, spellbinding visuals. Snowden paid attention to Detroit’s changing urban landscape, and found beauty in the seemingly unexpected.
Gilda Snowden, a native Detroiter, started her artistic endeavors at Cass Technical High School with a focus in fashion design. She then went on to attend Wayne State University where she earned her BFA in Advertising Design and Painting, and later her MA and MFA in Painting. She was an outstanding artist in the Cass Corridor art movement in the 70s and 80s and was also a devoted arts educator. Snowden taught at the College of Creative Studies for thirty-one years, at times serving as Chair for the Fine Arts department and the Painting department. Throughout her life, she curated shows at places like the Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum and the Detroit Institute of Arts. She was also a member of Michigan’s National Conference of Artists chapter. Before Snowden’s passing, she served as gallery director for the Detroit Repertory Theatre. Her artwork lives on in permanent collections in the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Wayne State University Art Collection, and the David C. Driskell Center in Maryland.
This work was donated to the Wayne State University Art Collection by the Gilda Snowden Estate.
-Written by Marissa N. Gannascoli-