Saturday, November 15, from 3 - 5pm

Gilda Snowden exhibits new paintings

Snowden will present a lecture on her work at the public opening reception on in the Gallery located at 1274 Library Street, Detroit. Flora Urbana: New Paintings demonstrates the artist’s signature use of color and texture in brilliant, intense brush strokes. A brush wielded as though an épée, maneuvering rhythmically on canvas in a glide, a flick, extending, advancing, lunging deftly, on point, scoring, turning, and then touché! (voila!, actually) – a winning collection of vibrant floras. And with mixed metaphor, we note that the work of this artist, who was born and raised in Motown, seems at times like the music for which our city is known when in “visual voice,” petals pop from the canvas in rhythmic beat.

Snowden’s bravura painting style is within the genre of Abstract Expressionism. Like Jackson Pollock, the artist believes a painting is a form of anarchy encouraged by the artist. But while Pollock pushed expressionism to a point where subject matter was so improbable that there was no need to retain it, Snowden’s pilgrimage is less nihilistic. She electrifies her subject matter, which despite her agitated style, maintains its integrity. The luminosity of her canvas conveys the illusion of sunlight sifted through a prism. She achieves a veritable carnival of color in which the eye seems to join in a dance of vibrating light intensities. The end result: brilliancy and intensity. The artists expounds upon the point: “For the last few years I have worked on a series of small encaustic paintings illustrating the lush color of selected tropical plants and hothouse flowers. This series originally began as a study of plants and flowers that either had the word “Black” in their title, like Black-Eyed Susans, or blooms and foliage that exhibited an extremely dark tonality. The idea of a black flower intrigued me. My history of making autobiographical works under the umbrella titles of “ALBUM” or “SELF IN STORM” made the notion of a flower standing in for myself very provocative…[T]he process of working on this particular series is very satisfying because it gave me an opportunity to return to a study of nature. The private metaphors that are some of my underlying reasons for working on this series of paintings exist in tandem with a desire to simply create beautiful, pleasing pictures.”

Flora Urbana is created with respect for the depth of the craft. It is an exciting rendition of art within its genre’s tradition. But importantly, the new paintings more than fulfill legacy (with respect, in homage and in obligation?), but they prove the promise of Snowden’s very own signature influence, her “stamp,” if you will, upon both art and artists in the future. (Decoded: to miss an opportunity to experience Snowden, well, should be avoided if possible.)

Gilda Snowden earned her BA degree in 1977 from Wayne State University, and on a graduate professional scholarship, completed her MFA. Since her first solo exhibition in 1981 at Detroit's Willis Gallery, she has been engaged in numerous efforts for the visual arts. Snowden’s work is exhibited in collections of The Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan Bell Telephone Company and United American Healthcare Corporation. She is Professor of painting and Chair of the Fine Arts Department at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan.

Thru: November 15 – January 10, 2009.