Sara Gately, Painting & Printmaking
Artist Statement
Sara Gately is Boston based 2D Visual Artist and K-8 Art Teacher. She has been practicing the Visual Arts for over ten years and has exhibited in group and solo shows throughout the New England area. For the last few years, Gately has been creating a series of animal portraits in order to inspire empathy and compassion in the hearts and minds of the viewers of her work. Gately’s portraits are a reaction to increasing environmental concerns. Animal habitats are consistently threatened by encroaching human development. Factory farms have taken over the food industry and a variety of species are becoming endangered and extinct due to environmental pollution and illegal poaching. It is Gately’s aim to call attention to the dire need for humans to have compassion for animals. In having compassion for other living beings, by allowing ourselves to understand that animals possess feelings and thoughts, people can widen their understanding of the natural world and thereby better understand themselves.
In many ancient cultures, animals were considered to possess symbolic powers and were venerated, respected and worshipped. Gately believes that it is time to return to a similar system of thinking, in order to ensure our spiritual, as well as our literal survival. Gately believes that humans and animals possess souls and her artwork calls upon the viewer to witness the soul of the animal depicted. In this visual process, it is Gately’s goal to not only create empathy, but to deepen the viewer’s humanity.
Exhibitions and Publications
Solo Exhibition, Coffee Break Café Visiting Artist, July 2019
Group Exhibition, MA Art Education Association Members Exhibition,June-Sept. 2019
Solo Exhibition, “Venerate”, Western New England University Gallery, April-May 2019
Group Exhibition, “Perceptions of Selfie”, Mosesian Center for the Arts, Jan-Mar. 2019
Members Exhibition, Mosesian Center for the Arts, Sep-Nov. 2018
Group Exhibition, “Wicked Strange” Brookline Center for the Arts, Oct. 2018
Group Exhibition, “Shape and Line” Dedham Square Artist Guild, Aug-Nov 2018
Solo Exhbition “Venerate”, Cafeteria Boston, Nov-Dec 2017
Motherbrook Open Studios, November 2017
Solo Exhibition “Venerate” Brockton Public Library, October 2017
“Venerate”, Figment Interactive Arts Festival, July 2017
Solo Exhibition, “Venerate”, Hyde Park Public Library, June 2017
Group Show, “Moving Parts”, Post Office Gallery in North Truro, June 2017
Group Show, “Reclaimed”, Mosesian Center for the Arts, April-August 2017
Group Show, “Wings, Beaks and Feathers, Artscape in West Concord, April-August 2017
Solo Exhibition, Sister Sorel, March 2017
Eco Song Exhibit, Lesley University Jan/Feb 2017
Solo Exhibition, Watertown Public Library, December 2016
Women Artists and Writers to Benefit Amirah, Porter Mill Studios, August 2016
Art on the Brewery Walls, Jamaica Plain, May 2016
Milton Art Center, First Annual Juried Show. March 2016
Winter Wonders Exhibition, ArcWorks Community Art Center February 2016
Arts Benefit for the Boston Rape Crisis Center, 2015
Auction to Benefit the Holy Name Parish School Playground Fund, 2015
Violence Transformed, Boston 2014
Wild Woman Rising Publication, December 2013
Solo Exhibition at The Out of Blue Gallery, Sep/Oct 2013
Open House at Paris Street Galleries, September 2013
Figment, July 2013, “Looking Through” An interactive arts Festival in which Boston participants could create artwork “like the artist” ie permanent markers on acetate
Boston City Hall, Artists Beyond Challenges Exhibit, July/August 2013
Salem Arts Festival, June 2013
Muralist at Bartlett Yard, May 2013
Group Show at the Equal Exchange Café, April/May 2013
Layers: Forced Unity, Hidden Subjects, Cambridge School of Weston, April 2013
RAW Boston Muralist, March 2013
Featured Artist at the Artist Crossing Gallery, March 2013
“Alt Conference” Gallery 360 at Northeastern University, March 2013
“Grayscale” Group Exhibition, UFORGE Gallery, March 2013
“META”, Group Exhibition, Gallery 263, December 2012
Boston Raw Artist of the Year Semi Finals Exhibition Event, November 18th 2012
November’s Featured Monthly Artist for the Boston Spectrum an online Art Zine
Hyde Park Open Studios, October 2012
A Live Art Event, Into Your Art Inc., Jamaica Plain August 17th, 2012
Desiderata, Cambridge July 2012
1369 Coffee Shop, Featured Artist, Cambridge June 2012
Solstice, RAW Arts Showcase at the Estate, Boston June 15th, 2012
Out of the Blue Gallery, Cambridge May, 2012
