
Wendi Schneider
Artist’s Statement
My images are layered digitally with color and texture and printed digitally on vellum and kozo. Gold leaf is then applied behind the image, infusing the artist’s hand and suffusing the subjects with the spirituality and sanctity of the precious metals, echoing and illuminating the magical moments of capture and the communion with the subjects themselves - vanishing moments of beauty in our vulnerable environment.
I have a particular fondness for owls. There was a small farm behind our home in Memphis when I was a young child, and I was soothed by the calls of the Great Horned Owls as I drifted off to sleep.Biography
Wendi Schneider is a Denver-based visual artist widely known for her ongoing series of hand-gilded photographs, States of Grace –– illuminated impressions of grace in the natural world. Drawn to the serenity she finds in the sinuous elegance of organic forms, she embraces photography to preserve vanishing moments of beauty in our vulnerable environment. Schneider has perfected a gilding process in which her images seemingly dance on the paper’s surface amidst reflections of light on precious metals, creating a synthesis of technique and subject.
Born in Memphis, TN in 1955, Schneider grew up in a family of artists, later earning an AA in Art History from Stephens College and a BA in Painting from Newcomb College at Tulane University. Her interest in photography germinated in the early 1980s with the use of a camera to reference models for oil paintings. Mesmerized by the possibilities of the photographic art form and the alchemy of the darkroom, yet missing the sensuousness of oils, Schneider began to layer oils on photographs to manipulate the boundaries between the real and the imagined. This process laid the groundwork for the unique layering and gilding that would later become the foundation of States of Grace.
In 1988, Schneider moved to New York City and began a diverse and successful career that included fine art commissions, photography for magazines, book covers, and advertising, and later (after a move to Denver in 1994) design and art direction. In 2012, she began to produce a collection of photographs featuring flora and fauna – the States of Grace series, which was to become her signature body of work.
Schneider’s photographs are held in the permanent collections of The New Orleans Museum of Art, The Center for Creative Photography, The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, The Auburn University Library Special Collections, and The Try-Me Collection (among others), as well as numerous private collections. Her work has been published and exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions worldwide including AIPAD and Art Basel. Schneider is represented by A Gallery for Fine Photography in New Orleans, Catherine Couturier Gallery in Houston, and Galeria PhotoGraphic in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
Schneider is a collector of art and objects from the turn of the 20th century – primarily Art Nouveau, Arts & Crafts and photogravures. She has juried several successful exhibitions and sits on the executive board of the Colorado Photographic Arts Center.Exhibitions
SELECTED EXHIBITS (solo exhibitions *)
2020 Photos de Femmes, Chateau de LaLande, Crozon-sur-Vauvre, France – SeeingWOMEN
2020 The Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ – The Qualities of Light
2019 The Print Center, Philadelphia, PA
2019 Catherine Couturier Gallery, Houston, TX – States of Grace *
2019 SE Center For Photography, Greenville, SC – Evenings with the Moon *
2019 Catherine Couturier Gallery, Houston, TX – Garden Party
2019 The Gallery at Mr. Pool, Boulder, CO – Evenings with the Moon *
2019 Robert Anderson Gallery, Denver, CO
2018 The Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA – States of Grace *
2018 Galeria PhotoGraphic, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico – States of Grace *
2018 A Smith Gallery, Johnson City, TX – States of Grace *
2018 Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA – International Exhibit
2018 Fine Art & Documentary Photography Biennial, Barcelona
2018 Candela Gallery, Richmond, VA – Unbound 7
2018 Panopticon Gallery, Boston, MA – In the Garden
2018 Center For Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO – Black & White / Illuminate
2018 PH21 Gallery, Budapest, Hungary – Peripheral Visions
2018 Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, Tampa, FL
2017 Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA – Aviary
2017 The Center For Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO – Small Works / Animalia
2017 The Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CO
2017 APA-LA | Santa Monica Art Studios, CA – Off The Clock
2017 Brickworks Gallery, Atlanta, GA – Southern Landscapes
2017 Pace Center for the Arts, Parker, CO – Women Behind the Lens
2017 SE Center for Photography, Greenville, SC – Monochrome
2017 A Gallery For Fine Photography, New Orleans, LA – In Color
2016 International Biennial of Fine Art & Documentary Photography, Berlin, Germany
2016 SE Center for Photography, Greenville, SC – Nocturnes
2016 San Diego Natural History Museum, CA – Best of Nature
2015 The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO – Illuminate
2015 Space Gallery, Denver, CO – Soul Struck
2015 A Gallery for Fine Photography, New Orleans, LA – Where
2014 Gallery at Watershed, Eugene, OR – The Elegant Nude
2014 Carmen Wiedenhoeft Gallery, Denver, LA – Lovers Collaborations
2013 San Diego Natural History Museum, CA – Best of Nature
2012 Photo LA, Los Angeles, CA – Women in Photography International
2008 Reed Gallery, Denver, CO – A Luscious Lens *
1996 Merrill Gallery of Fine Art, Denver, CO
1995 University of Denver, CO – Other Visions
1995 A Gallery for Fine Photography, New Orleans, LA – Naked
1995, AIPAD, New York, NY
1994 Stuart Levy Fine Art, New York, NY – Eros & the Identity
1994 Carol Siple Gallery, Denver, CO
1994 Rule Modern, Denver, CO – Nature Morte
1994 Wach Gallery, Avon Lakes, OH – Women in Photography
1994 & 1993 AIPAD, New York, NY
1993 Wach Gallery, Avon Lakes, OH
1992 AIPAD, Washington, D.C.
1992 Foto-Fest, Houston, TX
1992 Art Fair 23, Basel, Switzerland
1992 Eastern Shore Art Center, Fairhope, AL – History of Photography
1992 Cheap Shots Gallery, Aspen, CO
1991 Art Fair 22, Basel, Switzerland
1991 Wild Plum Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY
1990 Georg C. Puluj Kunsthandel, Munich, Germany
1990 Art Fair 21, Basel, Switzerland
1992 Bell-Ross Fine Art Gallery, Memphis, TN – New York Exposure *
1991 A Gallery for Fine Photography, New Orleans, LA – Mille-Fleur *
1989 Theatre Memphis, Memphis, TN *
1989 Wilkov-Goldfeder Gallery, New York, NY – Three Photographers
1989 Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN – Vision & Inspiration
1989 A Gallery For Fine Photography
1986 Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA – Art for Art’s Sake
1985 Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA – Major Miniatures, Louisiana Now & Images of Kathy B
1985 Jewish Community Center, New Orleans, LA *
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