PORTLAND, ME.- Moss Galleries presents Anne Neely: Wonder of the Light, an exhibition of new work by acclaimed painter and printmaker Anne Neely. On view through August 15, the exhibition explores the natural world, memory, vulnerability, and personal forces that shape our lives.

For nearly five decades, Neely has created work rooted in a deep reverence for the natural world and a profound awareness of its fragility. Over the last two years, she has developed a new body of paintings forged through her experience of surviving cancer and her sustained, meditative, and physical practice of painting. Neely’s paintings mark a shift in both process and perspective. After receiving an ovarian cancer diagnosis in 2024, her dialogue with paint and canvas turned inward. What began as poured “explosions” that echoed the tumor inside her body gradually evolved into vertical compositions of color—ribbons, veils, and bands that suggest protection, transparency, and the possibility of seeing light through darkness.

“For the past 25 years, I’ve begun most of my paintings with a pour, using color as the starting point,” said artist Anne Neely. “The pours are always one of the great surprises in my work. I have control only over the colors I choose and the general idea they represent. Over the years, the more I paint, the more I follow where the brush takes me. Each time I continue in remission, I paint the wonder of the light, hopefully for the viewer to see (and feel) what is so often forgotten: that the gift of life is always before us.”

In these new works, Neely embraces the physical act of painting, allowing a powerful synthesis to emerge between body, mind, spirit, movement, pigment, and surface. Her interior world is conveyed through organically placed bands of color. At times, the works suggest a desire to withdraw from the world, shaped by her battle with cancer, her concern for humanity’s impact on the natural environment, and the relentless prioritization of profit over ecological wonder.

“In Wonder of the Light, Neely turns her keen attention inward,” said Gallery Owner Elizabeth Moss. “She becomes the landscape. The series is deeply autobiographical, extending a lifelong interest in water and land, translated through the act and materiality of paint. She remains committed to awakening awareness—not only of the impact we have on our environment, but also of our molecular embodiment within it and our entwinement with nature.”

Anne Neely

Anne Neely is a painter and printmaker who divides her time between Boston and Jonesport, Maine. She was a finalist for the Prix de Rome and was twice a finalist in painting for the Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship. In 2024, she was awarded a year-long fellowship to the Sharpe Walentas Studio Program in Brooklyn, New York, and, in the wake of her cancer treatment, began these paintings. She has been given residencies at the Millay Colony for the Arts in New York; the Ballinglen Arts Foundation in County Mayo, Ireland; and the Cill Rialaig Arts Center in County Kerry, Ireland. Neely’s work has been shown at Lohin Geduld Gallery in New York, Alpha Gallery in Boston, galleries in San Francisco, and museums throughout the country. She was one of the first artists to have a museum show exploring water issues in America at the Museum of Science, Boston. More recently, she was awarded a solo exhibition curated by Sarah Sze at the Cue Art Foundation in New York City. Her work is held in numerous public collections, including the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Brooklyn Museum; the Davis Museum at Wellesley College; the Rose Art Museum; the deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park; McNay Art Museum; the Farnsworth Art Museum; the Grunwald Center for Graphic Art at UCLA; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the National Gallery of Art; the Portland Museum of Art; the Smithsonian American Art Museum; and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her work has been reviewed in Art in America, ARTnews, The New York Times, and The Irish Times.

Related Programs

Artist Conversation
Thursday, August 6, 5–7 p.m.
Moss Galleries Portland, 100 Fore Street

Anne Neely has been selected as one of seven artists nationwide to participate in the National Gallery of Art’s West to East program, a film series celebrating artists from across the country to commemorate America250. Representing the Northeast region, Neely is featured in a 15-minute documentary produced by RAVA Films, known for their Art21 series. The film, which explores Neely’s artistic practice and career, is expected to be released by the National Gallery of Art later this summer and will also be screened at the Portland Museum of Art.