Gilda Snowden, next to Delvona Johnson's portrait of her at the Red Bull House of Art.

Home > Artists > Painters > Gilda Snowden

Gilda Snowden

Gilda Snowden was an instructor at the Col­lege for Cre­a­tive Studies (CCS) for more than three decades. A few of her paint­ings and drawings are in the De­troit In­sti­tute of Arts (DIA), and many are owned by individual and corporate collectors around the world.

In 2009, she won a Kresge Fellowship in the Vi­su­al Arts; an NCA Vision & Ex­cel­lence in the Arts Award in 2004; the Alain Locke Award in 2001, etc. Since 2015, the Kresge Foundation has awarded the Gilda Awards in con­junc­tion with the Kres­ge Fel­low­ships.

This bald recitation of facts does not do jus­tice to her importance as a mentor to not just the art­ists en­rolled in her classes but to the entire art community in Detroit and be­yond. More telling are the in­for­mal hon­ors, such as being in­cluded in the list of the art giants of Detroit. She was also a tireless sup­port­er of Detroit's art galleries. Her in­spi­ra­tion and influence on almost every art­ist she came into contact with will never fade from our memory.

Tornado City 2, one of Prof. Snowden's paintings at Cobo Center.

Gilda Snowden documents artwork at Detroit Artists Market.

Current exhibitions

• Out of the Vault, Into the Light at Detroit Artists Market, curated by Leslie Graves. With featured artist Lori Ellsworth. Opened April 19 and slated to run to May 18.

Even if her work is not in any exhibits in a gal­lery at the moment, you can still find her paint­ings in several public and private col­lec­tions. Perhaps the most accessible is the one at the Cobo Center in down­town De­troit.

Upcoming exhibitions

Her work will continue to be exhibited in gal­leries. Since she was very prolific, it is likely we may yet discover old work of hers we did not previously know. Her family are slowly and methodically working through the estate, di­vid­ing it into various cat­e­go­ries.

Past exhibitions

• Florals: Urbana & Baroque at Galerie Ca­mille, curated by Dalia Reyes. This ex­hib­it focused on her floral period, cor­re­spond­ing roughly to the years 2007 to 2010. August 11, 2023 — Sep­tem­ber 4, 2023.
• Resonance | Reverence at Galerie Ca­mille, curated by Dalia Reyes and guest curator Dayana Juarez. March 3, 2023 — 25, 2023.
• Chronicle at M Contemporary Art. April 29, 2022 — May 28, 2022.
• Salad Days, curated by Hol­li­day Tay­lor Mar­tin­dale at Detroit Artists Market. Jan­u­ary 22, 2021 — Feb­ru­ary 20, 2021.
• Bold & Beautiful at the University of Mich­i­gan North Campus Research Com­plex in Ann Arbor. May 10, 2019 — August 8, 2019.
• Textures of the City at Collected Detroit. March 8, 2019 — April 6, 2019.
• Bright, Bold, and Beautiful, solo show at Hatch Art. February 2 — 23, 2019.
• ...many more...

It's a very long list. On her CV, which she last updated in 2010, she listed solo shows at Sherry Washington, the Sag­i­naw Mu­se­um of Art, and a few others; and duo shows with Carlos Diaz, Lisa Spindler, Michael Luchs, Yolanda Sharpe, Chris Whit­tey and Stephanie Crawford; and group exhibits at Neal Davis Gallery, Dell Pryor Gallery, etc.

External links

• Estate Instagram page

Reviews

• Jim Welke, "“Gilded” and “It’s All Rel­a­tive” at Whitdel Arts", artifizz, February 24, 2014. "The scope of Ms. Snowden’s in­flu­ence reaches deep into the artistic, so­cial, and political fabric of Detroit and be­yond. ... Clearly, discipline and savvy de­ci­sion-making propelled Ms. Snowden to the esteemed place she re­sides at. Equal­ly clear stands the shear volume of her work. She “leaned in” as they say now. She took chances with many irons in the fire, some­times si­mul­ta­neous­ly. One can as­sume she burned her fingers a few times. But she per­sisted, and judging by the af­fec­tion di­rect­ed to­ward her in this show, she re­sisted every in­cli­na­tion to­ward toxic cyn­i­cism. Those facets — discipline, savvy, productivity, and re­sis­tance to self-de­struc­tive im­pulses — ap­pear like a dis­til­la­tion of the recipe for suc­cess; suc­cess combined with acclaim."