Wendi Schneider (b. 1955, Memphis, Tennessee) is an American artist based in Denver, Colorado. She is widely recognized for her ongoing series States of Grace, a body of hand-gilded photographs that explore light, materiality, and the transcendence of the natural world. Drawing inspiration from the sinuous elegance of organic forms, Schneider creates luminous impressions of flora and fauna that ho
ver between presence and impermanence. Through the layering of photographic imagery, color, texture, and precious metals, her works generate subtle optical shifts, activating the surface as light reflects off gold leaf and transforms perception. Schneider studied painting and art history at Stephens College and Newcomb College at Tulane University. Her engagement with photography began in the early 1980s, initially as a tool for documenting references for her paintings. Immersed in the alchemy of the darkroom, she began layering paint directly onto photographic prints, developing a hybrid process that blurred the boundaries between representation and abstraction. This early experimentation established the conceptual and technical foundation for her later gilded works. After recreating the 1901 Picayune’s Creole Cook Book for The Times-Picayune newspaper, Schneider moved from New Orleans to New York City in 1988, where she launched a diverse career that included fine art commissions and photography for magazines, book covers, and advertising. Following her relocation to Denver in 1994, she expanded her practice to include design and art direction, continuing to work with photography for clients while maintaining an intermittent studio practice. In 2012, she returned fully to sustained studio work, initiating a body of photographs centered on flora and fauna—the inception of States of Grace, which has since become her signature series. Schneider’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Asheville Art Museum; the Center for Creative Photography; the New Orleans Museum of Art; the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Auburn University Library Special Collections, among others.
