2022 Print – Wendi Schneider

Wendi Schneider is a Denver-based visual artist widely known for her luminous gold leafed photographs of the natural world. Born in Memphis, TN in 1955, her work is influenced by a background in painting and art history, her collection of turn-of-the-twentieth-century art and objects, and the lush landscapes of her youth. She turned to photography to create references of models for paintings in the early 1980s. 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 her 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 the ‘States of Grace’ series.

In 1988, after recreating The Picayune’s Creole Cook Book for The Times-Picayune newspaper, Schneider moved from New Orleans to New York and began a diverse career that included fine art commissions, photography for magazines, book covers, and advertising, and later (after a move to Denver in 1994) a return to design and art direction. In 2012, she began to produce a collection of photographs featuring flora and fauna – ‘States of Grace’ – 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, and The Auburn University Library Special Collections, as well as numerous private collections. Her work has been published, awarded, and exhibited extensively worldwide and is represented by A Gallery for Fine Photography (New Orleans), Arnika Dawkins Gallery (Atlanta), Catherine Couturier Gallery (Houston), Etherton Gallery (Tucson), PhotoGraphic Gallery (San Miguel de Allende), Rick Wester Fine Art (New York), and Vision Gallery (Jerusalem).