Fine Art & Multi-Media Visionary
M. Saffell Gardner
M. Saffell Gardner holds BFA and MFA degrees in fine art from Wayne State University. A multidisciplinary artist, art historian, curator, lecturer and educator, he teaches at private colleges and community colleges. In fall of 2023 Saffell installed a monumental sculpture “Gateway to Black Eden” at Michigan Legacy Art Park, which was commissioned by their collection committee. “Detroit rePatched” commissioned Gardner for a large memorial blanket sculpture. “Sankofa”, one of Saffell’s larger sculptures was shown at the Krasl Biennial at the Box Factory in St. Joseph, MI 2022-23. Saffell’s sculptures have been juried into the 2021 and 2023 Regional Biennial at the Marshall M. Fredricks sculpture museum and his sculptures “Sankofa’ ‘ was in the 2020-2021 Chelsea Sculpture Walk. 2015 Saffell was awarded a Kresge Fellowship. Mr. Gardner also participated in Artprize for 2014. Mr. Gardner was invited to Participate in “The Venice Biennale 2013”. In 2012, Saffell co-curated “Vision in a Cornfield” for the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. In 2000, Mr. Gardner was selected as the Chivas Regal Artist in Residence at the Charles H. Wright Museum. A commissioned painting “Door of No Return ” is in the museum’s permanent collection because of the residency. Commissions include a painted receptacle for Detroit’s “Pretty City” project as well as major commissions for the COBO Center (now Huntington Place) and the Detroit Public Schools. Mr. Gardner’s work is in the permanent collection of The Henry Ford Hospital, Blue Cross Blue Shield, DMC, Total Healthcare, The Federal Reserve, Chicago, Renaissance High School and Southeastern High School and Detroit School of the Arts. He has exhibited in Brazil and Ghana, Africa.
Map of my Studio Life in Detroit
“The image cannot be dispossessed of a primordial freshness, which idea can never claim. An idea is derivative and tamed. The image is in the natural or wild state, and it has to be discovered there, not put there, obeying its own law and none of ours.”