October 26 – November 24, 2013
Gilda Snowden – Album: A Retrospective, 1977-2010, with its archivist-inflected title, Album, is a look back at a varied and impressive oeuvre, almost forty years in the making. It is also a reflection on Gilda Snowden’s extensive career and community presence as an artist, activist, teacher, peacemaker and doyenne of the visual arts in Detroit. Thirty-three works (paintings, drawings, reliefs, sculpture, encaustics and embedded photographs) create a compelling narrative from Snowden’s student days in the mid-seventies up to 2010, where she looks far back to her ancestral roots, bringing her work up to date with her present family.
The artist states: “The definition of painting is expanding and continually flexing its muscles. When I was in school I never thought that I would be using the media that I use now. It seems that the older I get, the more radical I am in my own visual practices. This is an outgrowth of my early experiences as a young artist in school, observations and immersion in the Cass Corridor community, and a constant study of art history. To be radical is required for forward progression.”
Curated by Dick Goody. A full-color catalogue accompanies this retrospective. Included in it is an interview with the artist and a timeline of the thirty-six years covered by this survey; all works on view are reproduced in the fifty-page publication.
Artist’s Talk: Gilda Snowden, Thursday, November 7 at 5PM.
