The Weight of Light | New and Selected Works: Wendi Schneider

Wendi Schneider (b. 1955, Memphis, Tennessee) is an American artist based in Denver, Colorado, best known for her hand-gilded photographs from her ongoing series States of Grace. Inspired by the sinuous elegance of organic forms, she creates luminous images of flora and fauna that explore beauty, transience, and the natural world. Through the layering of color, texture, and precious metals such as gold leaf, Schneider produces works that bring together photography, painting, and object-making.

Schneider studied painting and art history at Stephens College and Newcomb College at Tulane University. Her interest in photography began in the early 1980s as a reference tool for her paintings, eventually evolving into a hybrid practice that combined photographic imagery with hand-applied surface treatments. After a career spanning editorial, commercial, and design work, she returned to a full-time studio practice in 2012, focusing on the botanical and animal subjects that define States of Grace.

Her work is held in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Center for Creative Photography; the New Orleans Museum of Art; and the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, among others, and has been widely exhibited and published internationally.