Wendi Schneider: BLOOM
.png "Wendi Schneider Bloom at Catherine Couturier Gallery")
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 20th, 4pm - 6pm
Exhibition on View: January 20th - February 17th, 2024
Catherine Couturier Gallery is excited to announce our upcoming show BLOOM, featuring a variety of botanical photographs from gallery artist Wendi Schneider. Comprised of Polaroid transfers and hand-colored photographs, each piece is a testament to Schneider's unique vision. Unlike traditional bouquets, Wendi's creations will never wilt, offering a lasting reminder of your affection just in time for Valentine's Day!
Bloom is a bouquet of floral studies, a selection of hand-painted photographs and Polaroid transfers from the 1980s to mid-1990s. My mother was an ardent gardener. As a child, I reveled in the sensualities of the outdoors - the lush caress of velvety petals, the redolent, mingling scents of myriad botanicals, and the muted hues of fading blossoms. The seeds of fascination with lyrical light on sinuous organic forms were planted.
My 20s were fueled by a yearning for self-expression without words. In the early ‘80s, I bought a camera to reference models for my paintings. More of an observer than a participant, the exploration of life through the lens seemed apt and offered grace through focus on beautiful, sensual shapes. Mesmerized by the possibilities of the photographic art form and the alchemy of the darkroom, yet missing the buttery sensuousness of oils, I began to layer oils on my gelatin silver prints to create a more personal interpretation of my subjects. The process allowed each print to symbolize how the subject felt rather than appeared, reflecting my feelings of the day to create individual impressions. The Polaroid transfers, inherently inimitable, were printed from images photographed on painterly, grainy slide film, sometimes reworked with watercolors, pencils, or pastels.
I referred to the works of that time as Stilled Lives. These are tender offerings of elegant blooms burnished by fleeting moments of light - eliciting the essence of the perfect imperfections of ephemeral blooms, tinged with recollection, resilience, and reverence. My work continues to be rooted in a celebration of the senses and the visceral need to express myself intuitively. That vine has woven through the decades - the practice of creating unique expressions by layering color laid the foundation for the layering and gilding that decades later became the States of Grace series.
“It is the image in the mind that links us to our lost treasures; but it is the loss that shapes the image, gathers the flowers, weaves the garland.” -Colette, My Mother's House & Sido
Polaroid Transfer
$1,200
Hand Colored Gelatin Silver Print
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Sepia Toned Hand Colored Gelatin Silver Print
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Hand Colored Gelatin Silver Print
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Polaroid Transfer
Peach Roses, Bowl, c.1995
Peonies, c.1995
Polaroid Transfer
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Polaroid Transfer
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Polaroid Transfer
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Sepia Toned Hand Colored Gelatin Silver Print
ed. 1 of 1
Sepia Toned Hand Colored Gelatin Silver Print
ed. 3 of 5
Sepia Toned Hand Colored Gelatin Silver Print
ed. 5 of 5
Toned Hand Colored Gelatin Silver Print
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Sepia Toned Hand Colored Gelatin Silver Print
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Sepia Toned Hand Colored Gelatin Silver Print
ed. 9 of 9
Sepia Toned Hand Colored Gelatin Silver Print
ed. 3 of 4
Sepia Toned Hand Colored Gelatin Silver Print
ed. 1 of 2
Sepia Toned Hand Colored Gelatin Silver Print
ed. 2 of 2
Sepia Toned Hand Colored Gelatin Silver Print
ed. 2 of 4
Polaroid Transfer
