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. Gately attended Hampshire College where she received a B.A. in Comparative Relion and Visual Art in 2003. In 2008, Gately received her M.Ed for Teaching Visual Arts PreK-8 from Lesley University. Gately’s visual style is influenced by the juxtaposition between graffiti or street art and the art of religiously narrated stained glass. Gately uses line as a means to communicate her emotions.

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, “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