'TEAMING' WITH LIFE

an exhibit focused on nature and humanity

by Anne Farley Gaines and Geoffrey Novelli

an artist couple who sometimes collaborate

May 4th – June 10th

at the Elmhurst Artists’ Guild Gallery at the Elmhurst Art Museum

 150 S. Cottage Hill Ave., Elmhurst, IL 60126

Anne Farley Gaines and Geoffrey Novelli are Elmhurst Artists’ Guild members who live and work in a Victorian home in the Pilsen neighborhood in Chicago. They were married in 2009 and showed together for the first time in 2010 at A.R.C. Gallery in Chicago. They titled their exhibit “Rebirth.” They have shown three times since then as a couple, most memorably “Parallel Visions” in Holt Gallery at Principia College, Elsah, IL in 2014. Gaines taught public art and mixed-media painting that fall semester as a visiting faculty member. 

“’Teaming’ with Life” at the Elmhurst Artists’ Guild Gallery in the Elmhurst Art Museum is their fifth two-person exhibition. The show will be comprised of watercolors, mixed-media paintings and ceramics by Gaines, metal sculptures and mixed-media forms by Novelli, and ceramic and mixed-media collaborations between the two artists. There will also be a section titled “Project Illumination EAG,” a small group exhibit of works by EAG artists -- vessels or sculptures created in about five different media. All works will contain multiple openings through which illumination from LED lights will filter. Gaines generated the idea. She recently gave a ceramic demonstration in terra cotta at the EAM, creating a vessel with multiple openings. Her motive was to generate a project to stimulate talent-sharing and creativity between Guild members. This grouping of works will project an abundance of light at the opening reception. They are meant to symbolize that the world needs more physical and spiritual illumination.

Concern for the world’s current state inspired at least ten of the works that the two artists are exhibiting; however, the works are not so political that viewers cannot enjoy them simply for aesthetics. Gaines’ works range in this show from traditional watercolor landscapes painted on location in Michigan, her home state, to mixed-media works on canvas or board. These works combine Asian papers, acrylic paints, and sometimes ceramic shapes. Her ceramic plaques and sculptures address a range of topics, most recently a love of the underwater world. Yet in progress, she has designed “Seaquaria: Peace Circle with Octopi,” a 9-part ceramic series, first in a detailed watercolor study shown. Other plaques address Covid issues, homelessness, and the refugee crisis. Her use of color is mostly vivid, but sometimes darker and more neutral.

Novelli’s metal sculptures display respect for the properties of the materials themselves, whether lead, copper, or steel. The simplicity of the structure of his forms and their minimal detail contrast with Gaines’ more intricate compositions. “Cesto di Rame,” Italian for ‘copper basket,’ is an example of one of his cross-cultural formations which pays homage to the time-worn tradition of basket-making. Artists or artisans most commonly weave baskets in ‘soft’ media such as fiber. Gaines and Novelli’s collaborations, mostly ceramic, combine their differing sensibilities. Novelli forms the ceramic shapes and Gaines glazes them. 

For more information on Anne Farley Gaines and Geoffrey Novelli you can visit their websites at www.annefarleygaines.com and www.novellistudios.com.

Light-filled vessels and sculptures for “Project Illumination EAG” will be also be exhibited