Bold & Beautiful

Gilda Snowden (1954 – 2014) was a Detroit artist who received a bachelor of fine arts, master of art and master of fine arts in painting from Wayne State University. She was Interim Chair and Professor of Fine Arts at the College for Creative Studies, Detroit and also Gallery Director of the Detroit Repertory Theatre. Snowden’s works have been exhibited throughout the United States, as well as in Mexico, Canada and West Africa. Her works are featured in a number of publications, as well as private and corporate collections, including Post/Newsweek, the Neiman-Marcus Corporation, Ameritech, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and The Detroit Institute of Arts.

Snowden was an influential artist, educator, and mentor to many generations of young artists. She worked primarily as an abstract expressionist painter, heavily inspired by artists of Detroit’s Cass Corridor Movement, a counter culture art movement centered around Wayne State University in the 1960s through 1980s. The city of Detroit sparked much of her work. The Bright Stars at Night series is a celebration of the city lights of her downtown Detroit neighborhood, and the Flora Urbana series features abstracted floral forms, in encaustic, inspired by the gardens that have sprouted up in the city on plots where buildings once stood.

Artist Reception, Friday, May 10, 5-7 pm, NCRC, Building 18