A Virtual Taste of Gateway Online Exhibition

Abdel Michel lives in Milton, Massachusetts. He has attended Gateway Arts since 2008 and is a highly gifted, self-taught artist.

Michel is interested in forms of transportation, especially public transit, and enjoys making very intricate drawings of the MBTA subway system. He prefers to work on a small scale, often overloading paper with marks made, erased, and redrawn. He then combines these elements to create a congested view of Boston landmarks. When working larger, he makes self-directed choices in regards to omitting data, leaving room for one’s eye to rest in the rendering of the work. Michel applies his detailed practice to jewelry making as well. He enjoys using a palette of vivid hues, combining beads of different colors and textures to create intricately strung designs.

Michel’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Everything in London, UK, Barneys NYC,  Fuller Craft Museum, Concord Center for the Visual Arts, and The Gateway Gallery.

Born in 1985, Alexis Cofield lives in the Boston area. She began working in the Gateway Studios in 2018.

Cofield loves making art, and has already begun developing a colorful, unique style across mediums. Her happy positive demeanor finds expression in Cofield’s favorite subject matter, abstracted rainbows and heart motifs. Some of Cofield’s works can be pleasantly simple, while others are layered and complex. She creates drawings in colored pencil, as well as multilayered mixed medium paintings. Color is a very important aspect of her work.

Cofield’s work has been exhibited in The Gateway Gallery, and at The Beehive in Boston.

Amy Caliri was born in Melrose, MA in 1976 and now lives in Watertown, MA.  She has been working as an artist at Gateway Arts since 1995.

During her career Amy Caliri has developed a unique painting and drawing style that is heavily reliant upon line work. Caliri is very observant, a quality which is reflected in her art.  She enjoys the creative process, and constantly explores new ideas and techniques.

Caliri’s work has been shown at The Gateway Gallery in Brookline, the Berenberg Gallery in Boston, and the Mall at Chestnut Hill in Chestnut Hill, MA. Additionally, Caliri’s fiber work has been written about in the Boston Globe by esteemed art critic Cate McQuaid.

Annita Lombardi (d. 2017) was born near Rome, Italy and came to the United States when she was ten years old. As such, she was fluent in both English and Italian. She attended Gateway Arts from 1975 until 2016.

Lombardi, a very talented painter with a unique style, painted on a variety of mediums including paper, pottery and fabric. Her subject matter harkened back to her early life in rural Italy: she enjoyed drawing natural motifs such as rabbits, donkeys, cows, birds, and flowers. Furthermore, Lombardi had an intuitive sense of color and design; she worked meticulously, spending long hours on each piece.

Lombardi’s artwork has been represented nationally and internationally. Her work has been exhibited at The Gateway Gallery, the Fuller Craft Museum, the American Visionary Art Museum in Maryland, and the Outsider Art Fair in New York, among other places. Additionally, she exhibited at and won two awards from the Ebensburg Center in Pennsylvania and MENCAP in London, England.

Barbara Brown was born in 1945 and lives in Boston, MA. She has been attending Gateway Arts since 1999.

Brown is a talented artist who loves to draw and paint in a representational style. Brown is a self-directed artist with a strong visual understanding of color and control over her technique. She takes great pride in her work, often sitting back and happily chuckling to herself saying ‘Yup, I did that.’ Her electric smile is captivating and one can’t help but see the immense joy and fulfillment she attains by creating art.

Brown’s work has been shown in Massachusetts at The Gateway Gallery, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Skinner Inc. Boston and Barneys NY in Boston. Her work was also featured in New York at The National Down Syndrome Society Fundraiser.

Beatrice Farah was born in 1991 in Boston, MA.

Having lived in Colombia for several formative years during her childhood, Farah is fluent in both Spanish and English. Before her time at Gateway, Farah studied at Rhode Island School of Design, developing techniques in fashion rendering, figure drawing, and charcoal. At Gateway, Farah has expanded her artistic horizons, exploring sewing, weaving, jewelry making, and painting as mediums for the development of her artistic vision.

Farah’s work has been shown in Massachusetts at The Gateway Gallery in Brookline and at Blick Art Materials-Fenway in Boston.

Bohill Wong (1934-2004) was born in Hong Kong. He came to the United States in 1934 and began attending Gateway Arts in 1979.

Wong drew almost constantly and interprets his impressions of life through his art. The work he created is unique and entertaining.

Wong had many fans in the Boston area and completed numerous commissioned works. His work has been shown widely in the U.S. and abroad at the Berenberg Gallery in Boston; the Fuller Museum of Art in Brockton, MA; Very Special Arts Gallery in Washington, D.C.; and at Cavin-Morris Gallery, the Outsider Art Fair, the Cork Gallery at Lincoln Center and Margaret Bodell Gallery in New York City. Wong’s work has been reviewed in the Boston Globe, on WBUR radio by Lynda Morgenroth and in ArtsMedia, a Boston publication. A biography on Bohill Wong, produced by Marty Ostrow on WGBH’s Greater Boston Arts, won a New England Emmy in 1997.

Carl H. Phillips lives with his family in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  He began working at Gateway Arts in the summer of 2002.

Phillips is an extremely affable young man. He uses layers of paint to create vibrant saturated canvases that give a new life to images he’s exposed to through contemporary marketing advertisements. Part of the appeal of his work is the attention and time he allots to images and objects so apparent and integrated in our everyday lives.

Phillips has shown his work in The Gateway Gallery, Drive-by Projects in Watertown, and the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton.

Carmella Salvucci was born in Brighton, MA in 1951 and lives in Brookline, MA.

As a child, Salvucci amazed those around her with her drawing ability.  The facility she possesses for reproducing images and photographs in great detail was evident even then. Interestingly, when she works from her imagination, Salvucci produces simple pictures of houses, flowers, trees and animals.  The thread that runs through all of her work is a love of color.  Bright colors make her feel good and are what she loves most about making art. Though shy and retiring, she is always actively observing the world around her and the patterns in nature. Salvucci has created many commissioned pieces and many of her works have been reproduced as cards and posters.

Salvucci has exhibited at the Berenberg Gallery in Boston, the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA; and at the Cork Gallery in Lincoln Center as well as at the Margaret Bodell Gallery and the Outsider Art Fair in New York. In 1995 she was the Massachusetts representative in the Once Around America exhibition sponsored by the Very Special Arts Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Carmen Martinez was born in 1978, and lives in Roxbury, Massachusetts.

She has attended Gateway Arts since 2000.  Martinez is prolific in a variety of mediums, including ceramics, jewelry, fabric arts, weaving, drawing and painting.  Her unique style is characterized by layering text and appropriated imagery of her favorite animals, comic book and video game characters, baseball players, and athletic teams. Her subject matter comes from her experiences of playing the drums, playing Nintendo games, and watching movies and WWE wrestling.

Martinez has participated in exhibitions in Massachusetts at The Gateway Gallery, the Barneys NY Windows at Copley Place Mall, The Children’s Museum, the Arnheim Gallery at MassArt, the Elizabeth A Beland Gallery at The Essex Art Center in Lawrence, and in New York at Copacabana in New York, NY.

When Cathy Anderson died in December 1995 she was only 29 years old.

As a person with autism born in 1966, she had probably spent her life trying to reconcile the differences between her personal experience of the world and the generally agreed upon reality to which most people subscribe. By modifying her behavioral responses through her observational skills, Anderson came a long way toward functioning successfully in society. Observation also played an important part in her life as an artist, and through her work she was able to communicate in ways that she could not communicate verbally. She had found her voice.

She attended Gateway Arts from 1993-1995. Her approaches to art were fascinating to observe. She enjoyed experimenting with color and creating spatial illusions with an intuitive form of perspective drawing. If Anderson needed more surface area to complete a work in progress, she would add more paper. Or, if she wanted to change an image, Anderson might have glued a piece of paper over the original image. Sometimes she would attach tape or other materials to her work just for the delight she found in their tactile qualities.

Her work has been exhibited at the Clark Gallery and Brandeis University in Massachusetts. In New York her work has been shown at the Outsider Art Fair and Bridges and Bodell Gallery. She has also shown at the Very Special Arts Gallery in Washington, D.C. In 1996, her work was featured in an exhibition at the Fuller Museum of Art entitled From the Outside In.

Charlene Murphy was born in Massachusetts and spent most of her young adult life at Fernald State School. She attended Gateway Arts until August 2020.

While in her twenties, Murphy was placed at Gateway Arts as one of the original 8 Gateway artists over 40 years ago. While at Gateway, Murphy loved to draw and paint, and primarily created works in the Fabric, Paper, and Folk Art production studios. Murphy historically depicted men and women in the simplest form; however, her focus toward the end of her time at Gateway turned to drawing and painting whimsical animals.

Murphy’s work has been exhibited locally at The Gateway Gallery, the Mall at Chestnut Hill in Boston, and Brookline Open Studios.

Charles Ellsby was born in Chelsea, MA, in 1971. 

He began drawing in elementary school. Shortly after that he received a scholarship for the summer to attend the Museum of Fine Arts. Ellsby attended Gateway Arts from 1996 until 2014. During his time at Gateway, Ellsby loved to draw while listening to music, especially spiritual music and soft rock. Although Ellsby has tried his hand in a variety of art media, he preferred working in graphite and colored pencil on Bristol board in the studio. Ellsby’s subjects are derived from his imagination, dreams, and unusual photographic images. He is driven to perfect his skill at rendering two-dimensional imagery that looks exact to life. Ellsby is an effective salesman of his work and is able to captivate an audience through his narratives and explanations of his art and its meaning.

Ellsby’s work has been exhibited in Massachusetts at The Gateway Gallery in Brookline, the Christopher Brodigan Gallery in Groton, and the Cambridge Artists Cooperative in Cambridge. He published Charles Ellsby’s Dream Book, which he wrote and illustrated.

Charles Hurvitz was born in 1962 and lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.  He began attending Gateway Arts in 2001.

Hurvitz loves music and always has a season’s ticket to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and his artistic expression follows his love for music.  He creates 3D interpretations of musical instruments using found materials, paper mache and paint.  His 2D works are expressive as well, and he is able to unconventionally capture movement and personality. Hurvitz is also a prolific writer, and has created several small publications at Gateway.

Hurvitz’s work has been shown at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Drive-by Projects in Watertown, Barneys NY and the Berenberg Gallery in Boston, and at The Gateway Gallery.

Born in 1991, Charles “Chuck” Johnson lives in Boston. He began working in the Gateway Studios in 2019.

Johnson has a keen drawing ability and expresses himself in layered surfaces reminiscent of spray painting, Japanese animation and video game style–some of Johnson’s influences. Johnson is further inspired by rock ‘n roll and heavy metal from the 1970s and 1980s. Drawing, digital animation, and jewelry making are some of his chosen mediums, but he exhibits adeptness in all of the media he pursues.

Johnson’s work is available in The Gateway Store. 

Cheryl Russo was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and currently resides in Wakefield, Massachusetts.

Russo was adopted but always knew that her biological parents also made art. As Russo puts it, she was brought up as an artist and she is genetically an artist. Russo finds her style reflects the art they made: by examining the way nature and nurture connect.

Russo has exhibited her work at Artists Among Us, and at The Gateway Gallery.

Christina Taylor was born in 1983 in Boston.

Taylor had a prolific career as a Gateway artist from 2006 to 2013. She has a wonderful eye for color, perspective, and shape. Christina has a very meticulous and precise work method, which distinguishes her work in all media. She creates  jewelry, weaving, drawing, pottery, and stunning embroideries. Christina was always seen smiling and diligently working while at Gateway Arts.

Taylor has exhibited her work in the Phoenix Gallery, Berenberg Gallery, The Gateway Gallery, the Mall at Chestnut Hill, and Barney’s New York retail stores. 

Darryl Brooks was born in Arlington, Virginia, and moved to Dartmouth, Massachusetts at the age of two.

Darryl Brooks has been drawing since he was a child. He won contests and competitions while in grade school and was even featured as an artist of the month at Dartmouth Town Hall. In Brooks’ early twenties, he took classes in media such as charcoal and paint. Brooks joined the Artist Training Program at Gateway Arts through the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission after leaving school. Darryl continues to attend Gateway today, and has expanded his portfolio from drawing to jewelry making and fabric work. Brooks’ chosen imagery is primarily focused around action figures, imagined characters, and animal drawings.

Brooks’ work has been exhibited at The Gateway Gallery.

Darryl Richards is an artist born and raised in Boston, MA.

Much of Richards’ artwork is influenced by his experiences in the city. He has been an artist since he was 5 years old, when he started drawing characters from his imagination. He continues to produce work using imagery from his mind, but is now also focused on drawing people and other animals using both technical/traditional portraiture and cartooning techniques. Richards sees his art as a journey that will take the viewer into another dimension. He hopes that his work will spark the viewer’s imagination, draw them into the world he has created, and take their perception of art to the next level. Richards has taken art classes through a variety of programs including Artists for Humanity. He specifically focuses on 2-D fine art.

Richards’ work has been exhibited at The Gateway Gallery, and in 2017 his work was exhibited in a debut solo exhibition.

David O’Toole was born in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1981, and has consistently been working at Gateway Arts since 2012.

O’Toole works in various mediums with diligence and grace. O’Toole has an inherent interest in drawing and he chooses to incorporate subject matter related to movies and television he finds stimulating, juxtaposed with visuals from dreams. When asked about the nature of his artwork, he says “I am a super-hero artist.” O’Toole typically works in a representational manner, and often seeks feedback on his growth as an artist. He is also active in Special Olympics and loves to swim.

O’Toole’s work has been exhibited at Drive-by Projects in Watertown, Massachusettes, and at The Gateway Gallery.

Debra Belsky was born in 1961 and has been working at Gateway Arts since 2007.

Belsky makes colorful, introspective work on themes dealing with her life and interests; often these are infused with her unique sense of humor and order.  Her deliberate choice of materials lends a certain playfulness to her work. Additionally, dark humor allows the viewer to realize the depth of the artist’s anxieties.  She illustrates her inner turmoil and desires in a primitive form of portraiture.  Brightly colored backgrounds bring one’s attention to the emotionally charged characters. Belsky often refers to these characters as ‘me’, making it apparent that the works are self-portraits.

Belsky has exhibited her work in Massachusetts at The Gateway Gallery, Drive-by Projects, the Fuller Craft Museum, Barneys NY retail outlet and the Mall at Chestnut Hill.

Dominic Tufo was born in 1945, and has been attending Gateway Arts since 1994. 

Tufo enjoys process-based art making, including both three- and two-dimensional works. His sculptures vary from soft weavings and embroidered forms, to wrapped metals and painted wood assemblages. His paintings are much more gestural and impromptu, while Tufo’s drawings are focused and allow him to create structured compositions.

Tufo’s work has been exhibited at the Gateway Gallery, the New England Outsider Artists with Disabilities Exhibition in Boston, Barney’s NY in Boston, the Federal Reserve Bank Gallery in Boston, The Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA, the Margaret Bodell Gallery in New York, NY, and the Goldhaber-Fend Fine Arts Center Gallery in Johnstown, PA. Tufo has received an award for Excellence from the Ebensburg Center in PA, a MENCAP award from London, and an award at the 6th National Juried Art Exhibition for People with Learning Disabilities. In 2018 Tufo was selected to to be featured in The Gateway Gallery’s annual solo exhibition. The solo exhibition is a career accomplishment celebrating the artist’s development of a significant body of work and distinct artistic point of view. View Tufo’s solo exhibition here.

Donna Esolen was born in 1963 and lives in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. She has attended Gateway Arts since 2001.

Esolen is a talented artist whose work continues to evolve in its scope and vision.  She especially enjoys creating woven pieces and other fiber works.  Although her artistic vision is clear she is always open to new suggestions and directions for her work.  Esolen’s understanding of color theory is remarkable and she is able to create a visual tension through her use of space and color tones and values.

Esolen’s art work has been featured in group exhibitions at Drive-by Projects in Watertown, the Mall at Chestnut Hill, the Children’s Museum, Doric Hall at the State House in Boston, as well as The Gateway Gallery.

Donna Johnson (1956-2020) was born in Miami, Florida. She began making art in 1995 when she started attending Gateway Arts.

Johnson had a special affinity for art materials and used color and repetitive motifs very effectively. Over the years her abstracted drawings developed into cohesive large expressionistic paintings. Johnson’s work is visually stunning and through her use of color, she created a unique sense of depth. Her work was executed with strong design elements and a keen appreciation for color.

Johnson’s work has been shown at The Gateway Gallery, the State House in Boston, the Mall at Chestnut Hill, the Fuller Craft Museum and a solo exhibit at Duffy Rare Violins in Florida.

Emmanuel Preston has been attending Gateway Arts since 2006.

Though he applies his images to ceramics, clothing, wooden plaques and other items, what he enjoys most is drawing and painting images of angels on paper or canvas. Preston’s work often depicts heavenly scenes combined with other imagery; particularly dream-inspired. Sometimes muscular men will appear, and he will occasionally add in imagery from cinema or another unexpected source. Preston is dedicated to perfecting his craft and visually realizing his internal thoughts, desires, and philosophies. He is comfortable working in many scales, from the intimate to the imposing.

Preston’s work has been exhibited at Drive-by Projects in Watertown, and at The Gateway Gallery.

Evelyn Gero (1921-2015) was born in Boston, MA.

Her mother emigrated from Ireland and her father was from Leominster, MA. She was the second oldest of five siblings. Gero was placed at the Wrentham State School when she was 6 years old and resided there until 1950; when she was transferred to Dever (Myles Standish) State School where she worked in the Beauty Salon until 1965. After completing school Gero was placed with a family in Brookline, MA to take care of their children and clean their house. She remained working for and living with them for 25 years. This was her first experience outside of the state school system. Gero was a vivacious woman with a love for life and a wonderful sense of humor. She began attending Gateway Arts in 1989. Over the course of her tenure through 2015, she worked in multiple media including ceramics as well as painting and drawing. Gero’s art work has a strong narrative base and allegorical presence; depicting religious scenes and symbols.

Gero’s work has been shown locally, nationally, and internationally.

Forest Brierre has done art throughout most of her life.

She has found it often to be a helpful activity when coping with difficult life issues. She went to Goddard College, The Art Institute of Boston (Associates Degree), Massachusetts College of Art (BFA), and has taken many adult ed art classes. She also studied dance and choreographed dances. She facilitated healing-through-art groups at the Cambridge Women’s Center. She explored puppetry and mask-making with Bread and Puppet Theater and volunteered at Puppet Showplace in Brookline. She is now focused mainly on visual art: watercolor and ink are her most often used media, and the themes are primarily abstract with emotional content.

Brierre has exhibited her work in The Gateway Gallery.

Fran Benson no longer attends Gateway Arts. 

She frequently worked in abstraction, with expressive mixed medium works utilizing mark and color on paper and canvas.

Gabrielle Sichel graduated from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 1986, Tufts University in 1989, and came to Gateway Arts in 1997.

Gabrielle Sichel grew up in rural Connecticut, her mother an artist and her father a writer. Throughout her life, Sichel has seen the process of art making as a necessity, and has studied formally and independently. In 1989 she graduated from SMFA/Tufts University. Though painting and drawing have been a constant, Sichel works in an expansive variety of mediums culminating in the publication of several artist books, site-specific installations, wood carving, and a current focus on fiber art-based pieces.

Sichel’s work has been exhibited locally and nationally, including at Margaret Bodell Gallery in New York and the Berenberg Gallery in Boston. Sichel has had her work reviewed in the Boston Globe, Arts Media, and the Boston Herald. She is a three-time scholarship recipient for the Medicine Wheel Artist Retreat, and has received fellowships to attend The Vermont Studio Center five times. Additionally, Sichel has written and illustrated a book of poetry called Sees and Hears and her poems have been published in For Crying Out Loud.  Her current project is an artist’s book with poems, entitled Chance.

Gilberto Palacios (1954-2015) was born in Cuba, and grew up in Havana.

His single mother worked hard to raise Palacios and his eight siblings.  As a young boy, the music and festivals of Havana captured Palacios. He would draw the festivals on anything he could find. Palacios said, “In Cuba, they sold no art supplies, so I just drew on paper bags with a pencil.” The limited acceptance and oppressive dictatorship forced Palacios to say goodbye to his family and leave Cuba for the United States in 1980. Palacios would spend the next twenty years of his life struggling to fit into a new culture that was foreign and daunting, faced with language barriers, lack of jobs, discrimination, depression, and homesickness.  The peer pressure to substance abuse by fellow Cuban-Americans left Palacios feeling alienated.  He decided to take a bus to Boston to start anew.  Upon arrival, he was referred to Saint Francis House, sleeping at the Long Island Annex shelter. Palacios also used the Art room at Saint Francis to explore with paper and paint his childhood passion for the festivals and music of Cuba.  Loving memories of his mother also play a dominant role in his work.  His passion for painting flowed into his hopes of becoming a hair dresser, but after studying at LIBS school, he decided that visual art was where his interests lay.

Palacios’ work has been shown at The Gateway Gallery and at Martha Richardson Fine Art in Boston, MA.

Habib Plasencia was born in 1976 and lives in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. He has attended Gateway Arts since 2008.

Plasencia is inspired by the movies and TV shows he has recently seen, and he loves to draw in his sketchbook.  Plasencia’s work is very reactive to his surrounding; over the years he has developed a unique drawing style that combines elements of nature and existing anime characters.  Recently, Plasencia has expanded his use of materials and has become more confident in his own drawing skills, moving away from anime as his main source.  These new drawings are quite striking and have a resemblance to indigenous or aboriginal portraits.

Plasencia’s work has been shown in several locations throughout Massachusetts including the Gateway Gallery, Drive-by Projects in Watertown, and Barney’s NY in Boston.

Hugh Cameron was born in 1945 and lives in Quincy, Massachusetts.

During his tenure he has developed a unique artistic voice that is highly recognizable. His tactile appreciation of various media is seen in his application of paint and selective use of color. Cameron’s artistic process informs his visual compositions. The results of Cameron’s processes result in abstract compositions that rely on obsessive mark making. He enjoys the act of painting as well as weaving; one of his personal artistic goals is to hone his weaving skills in order to further develop the work he has begun in the fiber medium.

Cameron has exhibited work in the window at Barneys NY in Boston, as well as The Gateway Gallery.

Jamilah Monroe was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1997. She began attending Gateway Arts in 2019.

Monroe is an emerging artist with a rich imagination and a distinct style. In her paintings and illustrations, Monroe creates a whimsical world of anthropomorphic animal characters. She develops details about the characters; their names, occupations, style; and more. Monroe is inspired by nature, music, and her favorite books.

Monroe’s work has been exhibited at The Gateway Gallery.

Jane Tarlow was raised in Brockton, MA.  She has been working at Gateway Arts since February of 1996.

Tarlow remembers enjoying drawing ever since early childhood.  When she began working at Gateway, Tarlow was primarily a decorative craft artist.  Since then Tarlow has spent considerable time focusing more on fine art.  Tarlow’s work deals with the themes of nature, human relationships, and emotional conflict, and her “Roots” series explores the connections between the past and the present.

Tarlow’s work has been in many exhibitions at the Gateway Gallery, and she has also shown at the Lincoln Gallery at Beaver County Day School, Chestnut Hill, MA, The Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA, and The Sherrill House, Boston, MA. She also contributed to an art/fashion show at Avalon, Boston, MA, and participated in Brookline Open Studios, Brookline, MA.

Janet Inman was born in 1963 and has lived in Newton, Massachusetts for many years. Before coming to Gateway Arts in 1996, she worked in the cafeteria at Boston College.

Inman is a fine artist who thrives while making small works of art. While she works representationally, Inman has a distinct petite drawing style. Her gentle nature seems to capture the most important aspects of what she is rendering.  Inman puts great thought and care into each mark she makes. Her work is a great source of pride for her and she is proud to share her artwork with others.

Inman’s work has been exhibited in The Gateway Gallery in Brookline and Barneys NY in Boston.

Joanne O’Connell was born in 1968; she began working at Gateway Arts in 1992 and retired in 2018.

Since childhood, O’Connell noted her observations through drawing and painting. During her prolific career, she incorporated her love of rock and roll music and respect for life and other people, into her two dimensional work.  Drawn from her active imagination and observational skills, O’Connell’s enigmatic paintings and writings are layered with abstracted imagery and text.

O’Connell’s work has been exhibited throughout Massachusetts at numerous galleries including the Berenberg Gallery in Boston, and the Fuller Craft Museum. Additionally, her work has been shown extensively out of state including at the Goldhaber-Fend Fine Arts Center Gallery in Johnstown, PA and Bridges & Bodell Gallery in New York, NY.  She has received awards for her artwork from MENCAP in London, England and the Ebensburg Center in Pennsylvania.

Joe Howe (1930-2019) was a longtime resident of Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood and one of Gateway’s original artists.

Howe’s work was characterized by repetition, refinement, and frequently a striking grasp of composition. Howe spoke little but worked with unwavering dedication.

Those who got to know Howe learned of his desire to fly on long trips, to go “far far.” Sometimes, Howe’s friends would make him cards and drawings, laminating them with packing tape for him to carry in his wallet. These would say and depict whatever Joe asked for – pictures of airplanes, the words “1,000 miles”, lists of jobs and activities he enjoyed (“Lock up. Sleep over. Peel potatoes.”). The topic of travel figured into his work, though it is not immediately apparent. Sculptures that appear abstract may in fact depict airplanes or windows. Other pieces represent sofas or chairs, while still others remain inscrutable. The totality of Joe’s inner life remains mysterious, but like all good artists, he hinted at the possibilities with his work.

Howe’s work has been exhibited at The Gateway Gallery; White Columns Gallery in NYC; Drive-by Projects in Watertown; The Mall at Chestnut Hill and Copley Place Mall; and the Brookline Public Library.

During his time at Gateway Arts, Joe Salonis (1931-2017) worked prolifically on woven tapestries, as well as in watercolor on paper, in an abstract style.

Salonis lived and worked on a farm in Massachusetts for 40 years before he began attending Gateway in 1985. A talented and prolific weaver, he wove yardage for scarves, table runners, placemats, pillows, baby blankets, and handbags using a variety of materials such as tencel, cotton and rag. Salonis also created whimsical sculptures out of found objects and clay. He was an avid sports fan, and enjoyed listening to his extensive record collection of Country and Western music and Polkas.

Salonis’ work has been exhibited in Massachusetts at Brookline Town Hall and The Gateway Gallery in Brookline, Zeitgeist Gallery in Cambridge, Lincoln Gallery at the Beaver Country Day School in Chestnut Hill, the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown, the New Art Center in Newton, the Bridges and Sherrill House and the Federal Reserve Bank Gallery in Boston, as well as the Brodell Gallery in New York, NY.

Johann LeRoux was born in 1955. He currently resides in Framingham, MA. LeRoux has been attending Gateway Arts since 2004.

Interested in landscape, animal life, and abstraction, his art is as multi-faceted in its subject matter as it is obsessed with detail and small moments. Most of LeRoux’s art represents the nature that he loves: birds, animals, flowers and scenery. He has always been close to nature, and from early youth has enjoyed hiking and camping. LeRoux was an avid bird watcher. By reproducing live creatures through art, he gets to know them better – it brings him nearer to them and he is able to share his love of nature with people around him. LeRoux also enjoys drawing old and interesting buildings. He loves the balance, perspective, interesting lines and details, and the way these man-made creations blend into the environment. Because of his engineering background, LeRoux is detailed and exact, yet he also loves the range of interpretation that is possible with color. By working creatively with color, LeRoux is able to express the feeling things evoke in him. By using unusual colors, LeRoux challenges his viewers to look at old things through new eyes.

LeRoux has exhibited his work at The Gateway Gallery, in Brookline, MA and at the Mall of Chestnut Hill, Chestnut Hill, MA.

John Colby was born in the Boston area in 1955 and attended Gateway Arts from 1990 until 2017.

Colby is an interesting conversationalist with an unusual sense of humor. He has created poetry, drawings, paintings, and ceramic art.

Colby’s work has been shown at the Museum of Everything in London, England. In Massachusetts, his work has been exhibited at the Berenberg Gallery in Boston and The Gateway Gallery in Brookline. His work has also shown in the Outsider Art Fair in New York and at Creativity Explored in San Francisco, CA.

Jon Herzog was born in 1981 in Newton, Massachusetts. He began working at Gateway Arts in 2003.

Herzog’s love of theater, particularly musicals, inspires his colorful work.  Whether it be painting or collage, Herzog’s work is reminiscent of color field paintings. His work has a focus on the understood emotion of the color, which inform his application of the paint. Herzog’s work is often reflective of his experiences.

Herzog’s work continues to be recognized and has been included in exhibitions in The Gateway Gallery.

Jonah Springer was born in 1997, and lives in Waltham, Massachusetts. He has attended Gateway Arts since 2019.

Springer possesses great skill in using reference material to create stylized depictions of scenes and objects. In Jewelry making he is prolific, producing necklaces in a monochromatic multitextural style. Springer has shown interest and skill in textile works. He continues to develop his identity as an artist.

Springer’s work is available in The Gateway Store.

Josie Sosa was born in 1973, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She has attended Gateway Arts since 1996.

Sosa is a unique artist who fills surfaces with drawings of distorted human forms often wearing what she identifies as ‘large hats.’  Sosa’s compositions develop texture as she forcefully applies pen to paper, layering her marks which together build recognizable forms of people and text.

Sosa has participated in exhibitions in The Gateway Gallery, and Copacabana and Pier 60 at Chelsea Piers in New York, NY, and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanawaza, Japan. Sosa was the recipient of the 2015 Yohei Nishimura Award from BiG-i Art Project in Osaka, Japan.

Kathleen Wells was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1964; grew up in rural Michigan, and settled in the Boston area in the late 1980s; and began working in the Gateway studios in 2005.

Wells’ childhood was marked with traumatic experiences, and a spirit of creativity carried her through difficult times. Throughout her life she has struggled with a number of health and psychological challenges, and making art has been a central part of her healing process. Wells works in several styles and media (acrylic paints, pastels and printmaking), always with bold use of color, line, and texture and with emotional intensity. Her art can be characterized by a spirit of experimentation and resourcefulness. In her paintings and drawings, Wells explores psychological states by using the human figure, landscapes, and resonant objects to create magical worlds, ask questions, and tell stories. Currently she is investigating working in series.

Wells’ work has been exhibited at The Gateway Gallery and TILL Wave Gallery, and her works are held in private and public collections.

Kenneth Reynolds was born in 1966 and currently lives in Belmont, Massachusetts. He has attended Gateway Arts since 1990.

Reynolds enjoys being busy in his various art studios which include jewelry, paper, fabric, pottery, and folk art. His primary activities in these studios are beading and drawing. Reynolds shows much focus when doing his artwork, especially while methodically beading yards of wire.  His beaded creations are transformed into sculptural jewelry and also adorn dresses, bags, and ornaments. The beauty of Reynold’s artwork is it’s truly all about feeling. He chooses a theme of each piece, inspired from seasons, holidays, or people he knows. Acting off his prompts, he will then be given wire and a box of beads, thread, or wax crayons. As he feels for each material he carefully places them where he wants, manipulating the media consistently creating and end result nearing sculpture. Reynolds has a very complex style that is truly original.

Reynolds’ artwork has been exhibited at The Gateway Gallery, the Zeitgeist Gallery in Cambridge, the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, and Boston College in Chestnut Hill. Additionally one of Reynolds’ designs was the poster art for the Governor’s Commission on Employment for People with Disabilities in Boston.

Kristina Barney has attended Gateway Arts since 1993.

Barney never tires of drawing distinctive images of houses, trains, flowers, and animals, with her trademark rainbow sky. Barney also works with fabric and ceramics; she is a jeweler, weaver, and an actress.

Barney has shown her work throughout Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and England. Her work has been exhibited at the Arnheim Gallery and the Children’s Museum in Boston; the Zeitgeist Gallery in Cambridge; the Outsider Art Fair and the Margaret Bodell Gallery in New York; and the Goldhaber-Fend Fine Arts Center Gallery in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Barney has also received an award for art excellence from the Edensburg Center in Pennsylvania and MENCAP in London, England.

Larry Edmiston was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1958, and currently resides in Lynn, Massachusetts.  He began attending Gateway Arts in 1998.

Edmiston enjoys making art because it is about personal expression as opposed to repression. He has particular aversion to repression because of the behavior modification schooling of his youth and his experiences with a fundamentalist religious group during high school. Edmiston attempts to transform bad memories of those experiences through his artwork, hence his interest in the use and misuse of various types of authority.  Edmiston has a strong fascination with certain women from his youth which he draws as he imagines them to be today.  They are often placed in fantastic and symbolic settings. Their poses reference, among other things, pin-up models and record covers. Larry also has a significant interest in the late actress Natalie Wood, who often populates his work in the form of a spirit roaming places which hold a certain biographical importance for the artist.

Edmiston’s work has been exhibited in The Gateway Gallery, and was represented by the Margaret Bodell Gallery at the Outsider Art Fair in New York City. He has also shown at the Berenberg Gallery in Boston, MA.

Laurie Maguire, born in 1972 in Maine, currently resides in Dorchester, Massachusetts. She has been attending Gateway Arts since early 2012.

Maguire came to Gateway with a repertoire of art making skills, including the know-how to make complex tapestries and necklaces designs. She continues to employ and broaden her skill set. The results of her focused labor are formulaic and graphic. Maguire’s bold use of color and geometric patterning are consistent throughout her entire body of work.

Maguire’s artwork has been exhibited at The Gateway Gallery.

Maria Covino was born in 1969. She attended Gateway Arts from 1993 until 2016.

While at Gateway Arts, Covino enjoyed working in different art studios, although her work always presented a constant aesthetic. At Gateway, Covino would continuously carry two pens and a specific drawing. This drawing she held on to could take up to a year to complete; over time she would reinforce the piece with tape and found scraps of paper. Although this specific work is visceral, Covino’s primary body of work is quite structured and organized.

Covino’s artwork has been exhibited extensively throughout the northeast including at the Outsider Art Fair in New York, the Very Special Arts Gallery in Washington, DC, and the Sawhill Gallery in Harrisonburg, VA. Additionally, Covino has been represented throughout Massachusetts at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Drive-by Projects in Watertown, The Mall at Chestnut Hill in Newton, the Open Door Gallery in Boston, the Berenberg Gallery in Boston, and The Gateway Gallery.

Maria Field was born in 1974 and currently lives in Waltham, MA. She’s been an artist at Gateway Arts since 1996.

Field’s expressive mark making creates consciously designed abstractions, often reflecting upon or representing emotions she has difficulty expressing. She enjoys using bold color and incorporates mostly letters and vertical lines across the picture plane reflecting her interest in language. Field continues to observe and contemplate the work she creates and is able to reflect upon her progress.

Field’s work has been shown in Massachusetts at The Gateway Gallery, Barneys NY in Boston, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln and at the National Down Syndrome Society Luncheon Exhibition & Sale in New York, NY.

Maria Fulchino is a talented and hardworking artist who has worked at Gateway Arts for over 30 years.

Fulchino’s work is generally saturated with bright colors and repetitious imagery. While these days she prefers to draw what she refers to as ‘small flowers’; Fulchino has a terrific sense of color and when provided calming support is able to reproduce various flora and fauna. Additionally she is a skilled jeweler and utilizes her small flower motifs on pottery and fabric.

Fulchino’s work has been exhibited extensively in Massachusetts including at The Gateway Gallery in Brookline, the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, the Mall in Chestnut Hill in Boston, and the Children’s Museum in Boston.

Maria Schlomann was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1981. She lived in Pennsylvania and Connecticut before moving back to the Boston area in 1993.

Schlomann’s artwork mixes the psychological with dark humor. It is often imbued with personal references and deals with the experience of living with mental illness.

Schlomann has exhibited her work at The Gateway Gallery, and at Barney’s NY at the Chestnut Hill Mall in Brookline, MA. Her work has also appeared in Art New England magazine.

Mary DeCesar, born 1950, has been a dedicated Gateway artist since joining the program in 2005.

DeCesar creates beautiful self-portraits, often in the form of meticulously constructed embroideries.  DeCesar’s fiber works vary in size and inspiration, ranging from small daisies to large self portraits.  She places the same care and attention to her 2D works on paper and canvas; her application of paint and pencil mimic the repetitive nature and focus displayed in her embroideries.  Her intricately detailed works of art are admired by many and she gets a true sense of fulfillment in defining herself as an artist.

DeCesar has exhibited her artwork in Massachusetts at The Gateway Gallery, the Boston Children’s Museum, Drive-by Projects, the Water Works Museum, the Fuller Craft Museum, and Barneys NY.

Born in 1959, Mary Skinner lived in Brighton, Massachusetts for many years.

Mary Skinner began working at Gateway around 1982, honing her skills in pottery, silk screen, weaving, and watercolor, until 1999. Skinner is a happy and joyful person who is a natural artist. Talented with color and composition, Skinner dove into her work at Gateway and took great pride in her finished creations. Skinner also likes to dance, play the guitar and sing. With a great sense of humor and a joyful disposition, she could commonly be heard at Gateway singing “Beat on the Brat” by the Ramones.

Skinner’s work has been exhibited at The Gateway Gallery. She was the winner of the International MENCAP Art Competition in 1992.

Matthew Treggiari resides in Salem, MA and has been attending Gateway Arts since 2005.

He enjoys painting, drawing, sculpting and making craft items. Treggiari draws on anything, including napkins and paper towels. One of his favorite subjects is cats, inspired by his pets Moey and Zoey, he often transforms everyday objects into cat hybrids. Treggiari is captivated by a rotating array of subjects, often derived from movies, television and video games. Not content with the existing roster of characters, he introduces scores of his own characters into these fantasy universes. Creativity could be Treggiari’s middle name. He is never at a loss for ideas and finds fulfillment by using art as a medium for communicating his ideas to the world. Treggiari works in many mediums, both 2 and 3 dimensional, including paint, clay and fibers. Treggiari is an exciting emerging artist, devoted to his work.

Treggiari’s work has been shown at The Gateway Gallery, the New Art Center in Newton, the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Drive-by Projects in Watertown, and at the Mall at Chestnut Hill in Chestnut Hill, MA.

Melissa Berman was born in 1981 and lives in Salem, Massachusetts.  She has attended Gateway Arts since 2002.

Berman’s work is based on an emphasis of color, repetition, and pattern.  Her two-dimensional works are often made up of in bright colors with her chosen imagery spanning the composition. Berman’s love of visual structure and pattern has also led her to become a prolific weaver and jewelry maker.

Berman’s work has been shown extensively at The Gateway Gallery in Brookline, Massachusetts and at the Chestnut Hill Mall.

Michael Oliveira has been working at Gateway Arts since 2000.

While he works in a variety of materials, Oliveira’s stylized drawings constructed with paint markers and sharpies are his most sought after works. The cohesion between Oliveira’s two dimensional work centers around portraits of others. Oliveira’s ability to capture key features and isolate them in his drawings is quite remarkable. The intention with which he makes every mark is seen in his work, no matter the material or subject matter. Oliveira’s dedication to his work is apparent and part of what makes it so visually appealing.

Oliveira’s work has been shown throughout Massachusetts at the Berenberg Gallery, Boston’s State Hall, The Gateway Gallery, Barney’s NY, and the Mall at Chestnut Hill.

Mimi Clark was born in East Greenwich, RI in 1990, currently lives in Westwood, MA, and joined Gateway Arts in 2018.

Clark loves to draw, work with fibers, and make jewelry. Clark is involved in her community through volunteering and she is passionate about her family. She is always growing as an artist and seeking to learn new technical skills. Clark is artistically informed by pop culture brands and memories from her youth, and chooses bright colors and bold lines in her designs. Her animal imagery, smiles, and bright forms are delightful.

Clark has exhibited her work at The Gateway Gallery.

Longtime Gateway artist Nancy Cunningham (1950-2014) was born in Boston, MA. 

A very prolific writer, Cunningham published several novels through the Gateway Arts in-house publication arm, Agent X Press. Her stories, including The Anonymous Alien, The Unemployed Cat that Goes Out of Control, The Secret Storm of the Rabbit, and The Ups and Downs of Talking Back, Scratching Your Teacher, and Doing Drugs, were always well received. A lover of animals, stories, humanity, history and culture, Cunningham worked in many media. Her ever-changing subject matter moved from aliens to cats to historical figures to ancient populations. Cunningham enjoyed a special friendship with fellow Gateway artist Elaine Abboud.

Cunningham exhibited her artwork at a variety of locations, including the Berenberg Gallery in Boston’s South End, and Barney’s Department Store at the Mall of Chestnut Hill in Brookline, MA.

Nancy Sampson (1941-2007) was at Wrentham State School from age nine to seventeen.

After that she lived with family members, worked at a variety of jobs, and had two children. In 1990, after a series of physical ailments, Sampson began attending Gateway Arts. She had always liked working with her hands, and at Gateway, a whole new world of making art and hand-crafted items opened to her.  At Gateway, she always showed interest in knowing more about being an artist. She drew and painted even in her spare time at home.  She became a proficient weaver and made wonderful pieces in the pottery studio.

Sampson was a friendly person, well liked by many of her colleagues. She had a wonderful sense of humor and was not only a self-advocate, but an advocate for others. She enjoyed relating her experiences to others and wrote a number of articles for “On Our Own,” a past Gateway publication. She also gave talks at Pierce School in Brookline about what it meant to be a person with a disability and shared her ability to create art and crafts. She had many fans who loved her depictions of cats and personal experiences.  She will be sorely missed and her memory will live on through the work she created.

Sampson won a number of awards for her artwork from The Ebensburg Center in Pennsylvania and showed her work nationally in Virginia, Washington D.C., Baltimore, MD, and internationally in Cambridge, England.  Her work was shown and sold in the Gateway Gallery and the Gateway Store as well as the Mall at Chestnut Hill. 

Born in Miami, Florida in 1990, this gifted young artist produces skillful designs that are rich with content.

Polite and soft-spoken, Sanchez imparts a caring quality to all his work. Sanchez worked in the studios at Gateway Arts from 2013-2019. In a relatively short span of time, Sanchez established a reputation for creating fine quality folk art in fiber, paint, wood, and practically all media available to him. Sanchez derives inspiration for his art from numerous sources such as music, movies and other pop culture media, yet remains grounded in his Dominican and Latino background and family life.

Sanchez’s art work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan, the Open Door Gallery in Boston, MA, Drive-by Projects in Watertown, MA and The Gateway Gallery.

Patricia Ann Peter was born in Camden, New Jersey. Currently, she resides in Arlington, Massachusetts.

In 1978, Peter graduated with a BS degree in Athletic Training. After several jobs in the healthcare field she returned to school and in 1985 received her BS degree in Physical Therapy, at which point she moved to Nantucket for work. In 2005, Peter was encouraged to join an art therapy group on Nantucket which is where she began painting. Initially, artmaking for Peter was purely therapeutic. Since then, her work has grown tremendously and has become highly sought after. Peter creates vibrant works in acrylic on canvas depicting scenes inspired by nature, personal experiences, and from her own dreams.

Peter has shown her work extensively across Massachusetts in galleries as well as in other settings.

Patrick Shea was born in 1977 in Boston, Massachusetts, and began working at Gateway Arts in 2015.

Shea spent thirty-five years of his life living in Winthrop, Massachusetts where he was very active with hockey, soccer, and the boy scouts.  Since joining Gateway Arts Shea has actively pursued his interest in drawing. Often, Shea can be found working with paper and pencils, alternating working freely and using rulers—he creates works that are both abstract and figurative. Shea has also expanded his artistic practice to include both ceramic and fiber outputs.

Shea’s work has been exhibited at The Gateway Gallery.

Ray Salter was born in 1945 in London, England, and currently resides in Salem, MA.

Salter originally studied Drama at Emerson College in Boston and was an actor throughout his twenties and thirties. During the Vietnam War Ray served as a photographer in the Armed Forces. Salter began studies at the Butera School of Art in 1979, followed by training at Boston’s School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 1982.  His interest in portraiture, in part due to his work as a photographer, led him to apprentice under Warren Prosperi in Newton, MA. Salter has been greatly influenced by the work of Toulouse Lautrec, Edward Hopper, and Mucha. He prefers to paint his portraits on paper or board isolating within the edges of the surface and stray paint smudges.

Salter has exhibited his work locally in libraries in Salem, MA, Lynn, MA, Cambridge, MA and at The Gateway Gallery. Several of Salter’s works are owned and internationally exhibited by the Museum of Everything in London, England.

Rebecca “Becky” Geller was born in 1963 and began working at Gateway Arts in 1997.

Geller is a constant observer. Often found sitting with hands clasped and pensive, she is endlessly composing her thoughts and interactions into dark comical narratives. Geller works in many media, including drawing, fiber, and found objects. Her choice of medium often represents the juxtaposition between hard and soft elements and how she perceives the world. At first glance, the often visibly soft sculptures appear inviting. It is not until further investigation that it becomes clear to the viewer that the sculptures often have seemingly protective or defensive spikes. Geller’s two-dimensional work is more direct. She focuses on pattern, often using previously developed language and characters.

Geller’s work has been exhibited in the Phoenix Gallery in NYC, and in Massachusetts at the Open Door Gallery, Berenberg Gallery, Barneys NY, and The Gateway Gallery.

Robert Kirshner (1955-2009) lived in the Boston area all of his life. He began drawing in the early 1960s after seeing the Prudential Center construction site in Boston’s Back Bay.

Kirshner used drawing as a means of communication in part due to a language deficit. Drawing was a way for him to record and share his awareness of the fluctuations in the weather, seasonal transformations, the upheaval and reconstruction of the urban landscape, the expansion of the public transportation system and the ever changing fate of the Boston Red Sox and Celtics. He was very curious, and could be found daily, coffee and bagel in hand, perusing the newspaper and asking for explanations of the phenomena taking place around him.

Kirshner’s work has been shown and acclaimed nationally and internationally at the Berenberg Gallery in Boston; the Fuller Museum of Art in Brockton, MA; and the Outsider Art Fair, Margaret Bodell Gallery and the Phoenix Gallery in New York. He has won awards from MENCAP in London, England and the Edensburg Center in Pennsylvania. His work has been reviewed by Christine Temin in the Boston Globe and Stacy Soave in Art.

Roger Swike (1962-2020) was born in Boston. He began attending Gateway Arts in 1995.

Swike had unique interests and abilities as an artist. During his 25 years at Gateway, he worked often with a pen, paper, and crayons in hand. Swike typically worked on no less than three pieces simultaneously, moving rapidly, looking off to the side and mapping out the composition with his fingers in the air. Basing his work off a grid, Swike envisioned the entire piece before making a single mark. He was fascinated by numbers and created representational colors and images for the ten numerical digits. Swike had an uncanny visual memory and replicated pop cultural icons, as well as television character names and product logos in his artwork. Once pieces were complete, Swike would arrange multiple drawings into a distinct order, creating new compositions.

Swike’s work has been shown nationally and internationally at the Berenberg Gallery in Boston and the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA; and at the Outsider Art Fair, the Margaret Bodell Gallery and the Phoenix Gallery in New York. Swike also won a MENCAP award in London, England. Read about Swike on the online journal ‘Disparate Minds’ here.

Ruby Pearl was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts in 1949 and currently lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Pearl is a self-taught artist who won her first art award at age four, and has considered herself an artist ever since. Pearl uses collage and paint to create worlds that she would like to inhabit. Pearl struggled for a while with homelessness, but has managed to turn her life around. Pearl paints from the inside out and is drawn in and mesmerized by the artistic method through which the imagination is visually realized. She is inspired by poignant and tender thoughts and emotions rather than rational ideas of what to paint.  Her color palette and sense of light capture the life, mood, and feelings of her subject, which hypnotize her as it reveals something that cannot be expressed in words.

Gateway Arts helps Pearl to maintain her artistic equilibrium, and her work has been widely exhibited and admired.

Pearl’s work has been exhibited at The Berenberg Gallery, Boston, MA, The Gateway Gallery, Brookline, MA, NAEMI Conference Exhibition, MA, Inside Outsider Art II, AOL, The Diversity Gallery, MA,  Barney’s NY, Chestnut Hill, MA, Brandeis University, MA, and the Bayside Expo Ctr., Boston, MA. Pearl’s work has been reviewed by The Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, Yankee Magazine, Brookline Tab, Brockton Enterprise, Wilton Bulletin, and Boston Herald.

Russell McNaught was born and educated in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and began working at Gateway in 2001.

As a teenager, McNaught worked at the Harvard University Fogg Museum, sparking an initial interest in art. McNaught attended college in Tennessee for two years, then joined the US Navy, specializing in computers, software and hardware for air traffic control systems. After spending much of his life working in an incredibly precise field, McNaught decided to begin art making and exploring the philosophy behind it as an exercise in working more freely. McNaught’s work is a complex relationship between or the juxtaposition of computer like geometric systems and the abstract inkblot visuals. McNaught often works in acrylic, ink marker or paint pens on canvas or Bristol board. His work is vibrant and saturated with primary and secondary colors and he will commonly work in a long series exploring a particular visual experience or technique. McNaught tries to challenge the viewer to expand their minds about what is considered good art, bad art, or science and the relationship between these various elements.

McNaught’s work has been exhibited at The Gateway Gallery.

Sanders Paul was born in New York City in 1978.  He attended Gateway Arts from 2001 to 2019.

Paul enjoys playing the drums, loves the Beatles, and is very devoted to his Jewish heritage. Paul’s most recognizable works are his drawings of people from his life, all standing in a row and engaged in dialogue. These seem to be a way for Paul to comprehend and critique everyday realities. He also draws animals, Israeli flags, and visual chronicles of his annual trips to Israel. He also applies his imagery to ceramics and clothing, weaves scarves, and makes jewelry.

Sanders has shown his work at The Gateway Gallery, the State House in Boston, the Mall at Chestnut Hill, the Outsider Art Fair in New York,  and deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, among other places.

Sidney Perry was born in Alabama in 1943. He began attending Gateway Arts in 1983.

Perry is a quiet individual, but enjoys making jokes. He is talented and produces an array of art and craft items, always in beautiful colors. He creates well-crafted rag rugs in Gateway’s weaving studio, as well as hand-built vessels using very thin coils in the pottery studio. Perry’s paintings truly exemplify his love of color; his work is non-objective and often made up of undulating bands of color.

Perry’s work has been shown in Massachusetts at The Gateway Gallery, the Fuller Craft Museum, the Mall at Chestnut Hill, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, the Lincoln Gallery, the Zeitgeist Gallery, the Starr Center at Brandeis University, and the Concord Center for the Visual Arts. Additionally his work has been exhibited at the Waldorf Astoria in NY; the Bottisham Village College in Cambridge, England; James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia; the Very Special Arts Gallery in Washington, D.C.; the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland; and the Goldhaber-Fend Fine Arts Center Gallery in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. He also received MENCAP awards in fine arts from the Ebensburg Center in Pennsylvania in 1994 and 1996.

Sonia Borges attended Gateway Arts in the 1990s.

At Gateway, Borges worked prolifically in watercolor and mixed mediums, with themes highlighting her interests in fashion and narrative.

Borges’ work has been exhibited at The Gateway Gallery.

Susan Jean Semple was born in Oklahoma in 1949. She attended Gateway Arts from 1997 until 2006.  

At the age of eighteen, Semple began painting in oils and attended the University of Oklahoma where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree. For a number of years, Semple led the life of a vagabond. With her second husband she traveled all over the United States while simultaneously raising a family. To earn money, she set up shop as a portrait artist, drawing peoples’ likenesses for two dollars apiece. Ultimately, Semple made her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Semple is a versatile artist whose creativity shines through in many mediums, including: painting, drawing, print making, pottery, sculpture and quilting.

Semple was a featured artist in The Gateway Gallery and her work has been shown extensively in the U.S., especially Washington State and New York.

<strong><img class=” wp-image-5834 alignleft” src=”https://www.gatewayarts.org/wp-content/uploads/yas.jpg” alt=”Yasmin Arshad in the studio” width=”203″ height=”250″ />Yasmin Arshad was born in 1975 and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  She has attended Gateway Arts since 1996.</strong>

Arshad loves color, especially shades of blue, and has devised a personal way of sequencing colors and numbers onto grids. She is fascinated by the millennium, and employs the motif “129999″ in her work as a reference to eternity. Arshad uses her artistic approach to communicate her own language to the world. Her paintings allow her to be heard in a way she was not before.

<em>Arshad’s work has been exhibited in Massachusetts at The Gateway Gallery, the Berenberg Gallery in Boston, and Drive-by Projects in Watertown, and in New York City at Cooper Union, the Outsider Art Fair, and the Phoenix Gallery. She has also shown at the Museum of Everything in London, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan and Creativity Explored in San Francisco.</em>