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Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1987, Betty Antoine is an emerging artist with a strong affinity for needlecraft and traditional craft art.

Antoine’s family has a strong tradition of knitting, crocheting, and sewing; as such, these traditional crafts have been passed down through her family, and play a large role in Antoine’s work. In addition to her work with fabrics, Antoine also enjoys painting and drawing: she views her work as a highly meditative process, allowing her time for reflection.

Antoine’s fine art and crochet crafts have been recognized in many exhibitions throughout Massachusetts including exhibitions at the Gateway Gallery, and Drive-By Projects in Watertown.

Nina Aronson is originally from California. She now resides in Newton, MA and joined the studios at Gateway Arts in 2017.

Aronson’s work is diverse and she enjoys utilizing a variety of media, both 2- and 3-dimensional. She primarily creates drawings, embroideries, and beaded jewelry. Aronson’s works are whimsical, often including playful depictions of animals and people.

Aronson’s work has been exhibited in The Gateway Gallery.

Neri Avraham was born in 1990 in Israel, and currently lives in Newton with his family.

Avraham has a natural curiosity which is present in art, is very motivated to create artwork, and even has his own studio in his home where he creates colorful large scale paintings. He enjoys working with clay, acrylic, watercolor, pastels, and pencils.

Avraham has shown his works of art throughout Massachusetts, including at the Gateway Gallery in Brookline; the Chestnut Hill Mall in Newton; the Good Purpose Gallery in Lee; the Belmont Gallery of Art in Belmont; the Copley Mall in Boston; and the Boston Children’s Museum.

Ashley Barbour was born in Boston, MA in 1994, and joined Gateway Arts in 2016.

Barbour loves to draw and paint, and is artistically informed by women from the world of entertainment and history.  She is fascinated by heroines in such musicals as The Wizard of Oz, Beauty and the Beast, and Matilda.  Barbour is very involved in the arts community at Gateway, and is actively involved in promoting herself as an artist.

Ashley Barbour’s product line includes items reproduced from her designs, some of which have been stocked by the Peabody Essex Museum gift shop. Barbour’s work has been exhibited in 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.

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.

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.

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.

Julie Dapper grew up in Rochester, New York.

As a child, Dapper filled large canvases with imaginative scenes influenced by Greek myths, fairy tales, and classic literature. At age 17 she created a series of pen and ink drawings for an anthology of Sicilian Poetry titled The Golden Conch. Her art is rooted in childhood experiences; places and objects, epiphanies and terrors, visions and dreams. Dapper’s experience as a stage actor, poet, and composer also influence her art. In 1980, Dapper graduated from New York University. She went on to study Anthroposophy and Waldorf Education at Emerson College in England. The arts are integral to Waldorf philosophy, and through her continued study Dapper explored visual and performance arts. Following her schooling, Dapper remained in Europe for several years. Living there, she absorbed the art, landscapes, and cultures of Britain, Italy, Austria, Germany and France. Dapper works in many mediums, including oils, watercolors, pastels, and mixed media. She enjoys experimenting with materials. Dapper creates mixed media collage applying layers of paper, paint, crayons, vintage handkerchiefs, playing cards and an assortment of found objects. She is currently exploring the directness of acrylics as a means of expression. Dapper completed the Artist Training Program, and continues to work in Studio A.

Dapper has exhibited her work in The Gateway Gallery, and Belmont Art Gallery.

Leah Dunn lives in Newton, Massachusetts. She has been attending Gateway Arts since 2018.

Dunn’s artistic interests include painting–especially animal imagery from her colorful, whimsical artist’s book; embroidery, jewelry, and fibers wearables. She is also a prolific writer and illustrator of her own stories, which draw heavily from fairy tales in the vernacular.

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

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.

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.

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 at the Gateway Gallery and at Blick Art Materials-Fenway in Boston.

Claude Fourel was born in Boston, MA in 1937.

While an artist at Gateway, Fourel worked productively and creatively, with abundant color and diverse media, until her retirement in 2019. Fourel produced decorative, functional and fine artworks in her definite, distinctive style. Birds, butterflies, fish, flowers, and other figures are common themes in her very colorful work. This beautiful imagery adorns hand-painted and hand-embroidered articles ranging from pottery to large canvas and handbags to silk scarves. Claude also produced lovely jewelry, and is an avid singer. Working mostly among other artists, Claude’s defining characteristics have been care, creativity, focus, and never capable of idleness. After so many years as an artist, Claude became a quiet mentor to many.

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.

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. 

(1956-2020)

Donna Johnson 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.

Daniel “Dani” Kasinsky was born in Peru, and was raised in Cambridge, MA.  He joined the studios at Gateway Arts in 2016.

Kasinsky primarily creates 2-D works, using a variety of materials. Kasinsky enjoys creating works using imagery from his memory, in particular objects he likes and places he has visited. He occasionally works from reference images as well; however, his work rarely mirrors that from which he is drawing. Instead, Kasinsky will add colors that were not originally present, transforming these images in his own distinct style. His final compositions reflect his varied interests.

Kasinsky’s work has been exhibited at the Gateway Gallery.

d. 2017

Annita Lombardi 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.

Charlene Murphy was born in Massachusetts and spent most of her young adult life at Fernald State School.

While in her 20s, Murphy was placed at Gateway Arts as one of the original 8 Gateway artists over 40 years ago.  Murphy loves to draw and paint, and primarily creates works in the fabric, paper, and folk art production studios.  Murphy historically depicts men and women in the simplest form; however, her focus recently has 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.

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.

Born in 1997, Rotimi Osinubi joined Gateway Arts in July 2019.

Osinubi is constantly hard at work and enjoys being busy and in the mix of things. He is sociable, friendly, and lives to be around his fellow peers. He has a deep interest in art, specifically in drawing and is open to learning and exploring additional art mediums. Rotimi’s work at Gateway explores patterning and animals in bold and graphic colors. He frequently works in graphite and colored pencil on paper, methodically mapping out the picture plane in geometric sections.

Osinubi’s work is available in The Gateway Store.

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.

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 the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, among other places.

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.

Rebecca Bella Rich, born in 1960 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been enriching Gateway with her lively imagination since 1990.

Rich’s unfettered creativity is present in the books she writes, illustrates, and publishes. The themes of Rich’s work often include reflections on feminism, sexuality, friendship, and dreams. She is a spirited woman who happens to be a terrific dancer.

Rich’s work has been shown nationally and internationally at the Berenberg Gallery in Boston and Brandeis University in Waltham, MA; in New York at the Outsider Art Fair and in London, England where she won a MENCAP award. Rich’s work has also been shown in Massachusetts at the Gateway Gallery, Arsenal Center for the Arts, Barneys NY, the DeCordova Museum, the Mall at Chestnut Hill.

Lyubov Rozenfeld was born in 1984 and has lived in Allston, Massachusetts since her family came to the United States from Russia.  She has attended Gateway Arts since 2005.

Rozenfeld works primarily in weaving, pottery and fabric, making beautiful pieces using a needle and thread. She enjoys working with the other artists at Gateway and assisting in studio maintenance.

Rozenfeld has exhibited her artwork at Barneys NY in the Chestnut Hill Mall and Copley Place Mall in Boston, as well as 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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

Parker Stallworth was born in 1991 and lives in Malden, MA. He began working in the Gateway studios in 2020.

Stallworth has a twin sister who, along with himself, sometimes figures into his playful, cartoon-style pen-and-ink-drawings. Stallworth has a strong interest in all still drawing media, including digital and watercolor, and his work also manifests in careful, astute graphite drawings of the animal kingdom. Stallworth’s sensitivity and attention to detail are notable in his approach.

Stallworth’s work is available in The Gateway Store.

Roger Swike was born in Boston in 1962. He currently lives in Revere, MA, and has attended Gateway Arts since 1995.

Swike has unique interests and abilities as an artist. At any point of the day he can be found with a pen, paper, and crayons in hand. Swike typically works 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 envisions the entire piece before making a single mark. He is fascinated by numbers and has created representational colors and images for the ten numerical digits. Swike has an uncanny visual memory and replicates pop cultural icons, as well as television character names and product logos in his artwork. Once pieces are complete, Swike will 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.

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, Gateway Gallery, the Mall at Chestnut Hill, and Barney’s New York retail stores. 

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.

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 shown 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 the solo exhibition here.

Edgardo Vasquez was born in 1978 and lives in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He attended Gateway Arts from 2000-2019.

Vasquez’s interest in geometric shapes and bold colors lends itself to a variety of media, including weaving, pottery, drawing, surface design, and jewelry. Throughout his body of work Vasquez’s geometric forms take on personable characteristics, creating graphic and abstracted portraits.

Vasquez has participated in group exhibitions locally at Barney’s New York at The Mall at Chestnut Hill and the Copley Place Mall, as well as the Gateway Gallery.  He has also participated in group exhibitions for the National Down Syndrome Society Luncheon Exhibition and Sale in New York City.

Jeffrey Wales began working at Gateway Arts in 2017.

Wales has a keen interest in geometric forms and solids, spatial relationships, and patterning. His work spans drawing, painting, soft sculpture, jewelry, and two- and three-dimensional design. Of particular interest are Wales’ brightly colored deconstructed cubes made of felt and embroidery floss, which he sews in three-dimensional space, and whose corners and edges he then reduces to produce new forms.

Wales’ work has been exhibited in the Gateway Gallery.

Valerie Walker was born in 1938. She attended Gateway Arts from 1989 until the mid-2000s.

While at Gateway, Valerie found sewing a social and relaxing activity. Valerie developed her own embroidery technique which she used to create beautiful, sculptural pieces.

Her work has been shown in several locations, including the Gateway Gallery, the Massachusetts School of Art and Design, Brandeis University, the Brookline Public Library, and Barney’s NY in Boston.

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.