By Nomaan MerchantThe Daily Northwestern
Savvy dealers and novice art fans alike crowded Evanston’s Gallery Mornea Friday night for the opening of two exhibitions showcasing local artists’ work.
The gallery, 602 Davis St., will host the exhibits “Come Together,” and “Chicago: People and Places” for the next several months. More than 100 people packed the gallery to look at the wide array of art on display.
Columbia College professors David Jones and Marilyn Propp, a married couple, created “Come Together,” an exhibition of photography, painting and sculptures.
The range of different art forms distinguished “Come Together” from other exhibitions. Blurry photos of cars hung next to large paintings of flowers and other objects.
Jones takes pictures around the Chicago area. He said he looks for “slices of time” to photograph and sometimes spends days with just his camera waiting for the perfect picture.
“You start to see things and hopefully some good stuff comes out,” Jones said.
Jones’ photos were interspersed throughout Gallery Mornea’s atrium with Propp’s paintings and wood sculptures. She said her work changed after she went to Wyoming for a one-month residency to create art.
“My work has always been about the journey and traveling, and now it’s become more whimsical,” Propp said.
The other exhibit, “Chicago: People and Places,” includes a variety of photography and paintings that span 60 years. The style of the artwork ranges from cubist to Victorian, but with Chicago as the unifying theme.
The artwork depicts such scenes as Chinatown, the Tribune Tower in downtown Chicago and even parts of Northwestern’s Evanston Campus, including the Montgomery Ward Building and the Rebecca Crown Center.
“It’s about as diverse as you could probably imagine,” said Michael Greany, the owner of the pieces.
The total value of the artwork in “Chicago: People and Places” exceeds $250,000, Greany said. Greany chose pieces for the exhibition from his personal library of more than 4,000 pieces of art from around the world.
The result is an array of Chicago-themed art that cannot be found anywhere else, said gallery manager Richard Davis.
“Our task is to educate people about Chicago art,” Davis said. “Because of (Greany’s) hard work, you can see the best collection of art over the past 60 years.”
“Chicago: People and Places” will run through January 2007 at the gallery. “Come Together” closes in late December.
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