ON DISPLAY IN PATRICIA BARLAND GALLERY

Every Picture Tells a Story, Don't It? People, Places, and Passing Moments.

A solo exhibition by Paul W. Gillespie.

Patricia Barland Gallery I September 10- November 8, 2026

Reception: September 10, 2026 6-8 pm

ARTIST TALK: Thursday, October 8, 2026 6-7 pm I RSVP HERE

For more than two decades, photographer Paul W. Gillespie has documented the people, places, and moments that make up the fabric of everyday life. From photojournalism, street portraits and community celebrations to quiet, unscripted encounters, these photographs remind us that every face, every place, and every passing moment carries a story worth telling. This exhibition will feature selected images from Gillespie's Journalists Matter: Faces of the Capital Gazette project, along with new work from his street photography, portraiture, music, and photojournalism archives. This exhibition is on view in our Patricia Barland Gallery from September 10 - November 8, 2026.

To learn more about Gillespie’s artwork, please visit their website at www.pwgphoto.com

  ON DISPLAY IN HAL GOMER GALLERY

The Water and All the Things that Surround the Water.

A group exhibition featuring 14 Make Studio Artists

Guest Curator: Patrick Dwyre of Make Studio

Hal Gomer Gallery I September 10- November 8, 2026

Reception: September 17, 2026 4-6 pm

RSVP HERE

This exhibition collects works from fourteen Make Studio artists, including curator Patrick Dwyre, who make artwork about subjects in, around, under and over the water. The pieces include beaches, ships, submarines and many sea creatures. Patrick's bridge portraits connect the pieces from one side of the gallery to another. This exhibition is on view in our Hal Gomer Gallery from September 10 - November 8, 2026.

About Make Studio: Make Studio is a nonprofit community art center that supports artists with disabilities in growing their professional art goals. With a studio and gallery located in the Hampden neighborhood of Baltimore City, Make Studio has 45+ member artists who exhibit work across the country, facilitate workshops and give artist talks in the greater Baltimore metropolitan area.

Make Studio creates opportunities for everyone to connect through art. We empower artists with disabilities to grow as professionals with visibility and voice in their communities. We envision a world of acceptance and inclusion where art opens doors for everyone.

For more information, please visit their website at www.make-studio.org/home.html

Exhibiting Artists:

Alex Albert, Chaewon Song, Eddie Kil, Ethan Smith, Julian Hinmon, Kareem Samuels, Louis Middleton, Matthew Slattery, Patrick Dwyre, Sarah Oh,

Seth Jackson, Shermilla Fischer, Sutton Clark, Zach Manuel

Alex Albert (b. 1989) enjoys depicting family members, friends, sometimes fictional characters,his favorite places, animals, and foods. His process always involves creating abstract, densely- layered drawings using markers before entering into a more representational, yet still gestural, realm. Alex is a long-time Make Studio artist, having joined within the first few years of the organization. As an exhibiting member, Alex has sold a lot of art and shown work widely, including at Hotel Indigo (Baltimore, MD), the Milestones National Autism Conference (Ohio), in “The Cat’s Meow” at Found Studio (Baltimore, MD), and in the online publication of Quickest Flip magazine. He recently had a trio show at Make Studio entitled, “Along the Lines.”

Emerging artist Chaewon Song (b. 1998) recently joined Make Studio but is already making waves with her infectiously energetic drawing, writing, and expressive mark-making. Chaewon loves being involved in any form of art and craft that allows her to focus on small details, including beading (when doing so, she completes entire kits at a disorienting pace). This

cheerful diligence is expressed at Make Studio primarily through her drawing practice, in which she most often uses pastel, pencil, and sometimes markers to completely fill her paper surfaces. In her non-studio time, she is learning to swim, and enjoys helping her family with chores at home. The inaugural SCOUT Art Fair, organized within Baltimore’s famous Artscape Festival, was her first exhibition experience outside of Make Studio’s gallery, where she debuted work in the group show “SPRINGS.” She also exhibited at the Open Invitational Art Fair in Miami 2025.

Eddie Kil (b. 2000), who resides in Timonium, MD, recently often works as an “expressionistic translator,” borrowing modernist vocabulary (think Picasso and Van Gogh) whenever his mode is set within the impressionist realm of Renoir and Monet. Eddie enjoys interpreting 19th century French paintings; at the beginning of each project, he researches them on the internet or in a book. Eddie has also brought his approach to nature, food, and architectural subjects. His color application is bold, occasionally even neon. The general softness of the originals is inverted by Eddie’s use of flat swaths of color and clean black delineations. The results brim with crisp, 21st-century freshness. Eddie often uses sounds — song snippets, movie quotes, things he hears on the news — to help him focus on his art-making. In 2022, he received the Judge’s Choice award at the Art Ability exhibition of Bryn Mawr Research Hospital (Malvern, PA). In 2025, he was featured in his first solo show “Express Impressionist”. He recently made his art fair debut at the Creativity Explored x Open Invitational Art Fair in San Francisco.

Ethan Smith (b. 2004) began working with Make Studio in 2023, after exploring a potential studio practice as part of our transition-age workshop series for young artists, but already was identifying very strongly as an “artist.” Today, his consistent work ethic and unlimited creativity have confirmed his instinct, and along the way he has matured in his artistry while constantly drawing and painting at the studio and at home. Ethan tackles a wide range of subjects, including but not limited to landscapes, animals, portraits, and flowers. He has shown his artwork regularly since joining Make Studio, and further shared his techniques through leading workshops, such as painted rock workshops hosted by Baltimore County Public Libraries and Baltimore City’s therapeutic rec center. He loves doing crafts at home and building Legos, and further shows his craftiness by doing wood projects offered at Home Depot. He s a graduate of Perry Hall High School.

Julian “Jules” Hinmon (b. 1987) recalls that he has always been interested in “how art tells a story” and started his art practice in the late 1990’s/early 2000s before joining Make Studio in 2016. At first, he used construction paper and pencil to draw Pokémon characters and his childhood experiences, but then widely and wildly expanded from that start. Jules takes great pride in his artwork and really enjoys the creative process, working at a very fast pace with various graphic media. His current work continues to be inspired by his childhood, media he feels nostalgia for (cartoons, in particular!), and the personalities of people he knows and looks up to. Jules’ work has been recently shown in the comics and animation-themed exhibition, “Make Studio Funnies,” as well as Chesapeake Arts Center’s “Wildlife Wonders” and at Able ARTS Work (Long Beach, CA) in “A Playful Spirit”.

After making art at home and at St. Peter’s Adult Learning Center for some time, Kareem Samuels (b. 1983) began working at Make Studio regularly in 2012. He experimented with watercolor, acrylic, and more, to colorfully share the positive and spiritual messages of his heroic alter ego, “Bible Boy.” Since then, he has become an expert in doing portraits of himself, friends and family, celebrities, as well as original and well-known superheroes, usually in acrylic. Kareem is also a budding food blogger, documenting his many colorful meals in photographs and drawings. He says that being part of an art studio community is “my dream come true.” His work has recently been displayed in “Art in Full Spectrum” at the Maryland Legislative Assembly, and a trio show, “Along the Lines,” in Make Studio’s Showroom Gallery.

Louis Middleton (b. 1981), one of the original Make Studio artists who joined in 2010, is a long-time resident of Owings Mills, MD and is a devotee of all things retro. He gravitates towards epic landscapes and portraiture, or a combination of the two, as well as architecture in his art. His landscapes cover a variety of scenes from tropical beaches to Baltimore City to snowy mountain ranges, and his portraits are often of celebrities he finds interesting, like country singers, U.S. Presidents, and comedians. Besides painting, Louis dabbles in ceramics and has long enjoyed taking photographs and digitally manipulating imagery. He was one of the featured artists in the exhibition “Storytellers” at Make Studio’s Showroom Gallery. His work has also been included multiple times in Art Enables’ “Outside Forces” (Washington, DC), as well as in many other shows, and he has sold more artwork (including internationally) than any other Make Studio artist. In recent years he has become an avid teaching artist, presenting workshops based on his own painting style to all-ages audiences. He made his art fair debut in Open Invitational at Miami Art Week in 2025.

Matthew Slattery (b. 1997), a resident of Lutherville, joined Make Studio in 2019. Once at the studio, he wasted no time getting into a routine, and ever since has always made it very clear when he feels that a piece is done. He is known for his unique sense of humor, often deployed when wanting to take a break from working, seeking more coffee, or giving his dad a hard time. Matthew works mostly in colored pencil, watercolor pencil, and watercolors, but has dabbled in ceramics, leading to his having work on display at Baltimore Clayworks.

A transplant to Maryland from SoCal, but born in Milwaukee, Patrick Dwyre (b. 1970) joined Make Studio in 2024 and quickly showed us how he had honed his practice during his prior tenure with progressive studio Tierra del Sol. There and here, he has always been very active with his family and community, drawing inspiration from family trips, his very successful exploits at casinos (choosing to always give his winnings to nieces and nephews), and flying with his father. Patrick himself has accumulated enough flight hours to earn a pilot’s license. He has a distinct manner of layering primarily pastels and woodless colored pencils, sometimes using scraping to define expressive forms that are often depictions of places he has been. Rendering dense scenes with both dark and vivid and velvety surfaces, he reveals his intuitive understanding of color and texture. He exhibited extensively at the First Street Gallery in Claremont, CA while at Tierra del Sol (2009-2023), and so far while at Make Studio his exhibition activities have included Miami Art Week 2025, the inaugural SCOUT Art Fair (Baltimore, MD), in “Textured Narratives” at Chesapeake Arts Center (Brooklyn Park, MD), and “Memories” at Able ARTS Works (Long Beach, CA, 2025). His work has also been acquired by Gordon-Feinblatt for their permanent collection. This is his curatorial debut.

Sarah Oh (b. 1999) enthusiastically began her studio practice with Make Studio midway through 2024. She speaks infrequently at the studio, so without relying on words she quickly showed that she had a great sense of humor and is a fan of making many, many multiples of primarily cartoon and family life inspired watercolors possessing both subtly vibrating energy and simple elegance. A resident of Columbia, MD, she enjoys drawing (clearly), baking, and singing, but gets angry when people offer her food. Sarah’s knack for perfecting an idea and images through repetition was the highlight of 2024’s solo exhibition “Versioning”, and she made a splash in 2025’s group exhibition “SPRINGS.” She recently showed work at the Creativity Explored x Open Invitational Art Fair in San Francisco.

Seth Jackson (b. 1984) joined Make Studio in 2016 so he could become “a superstar artist.” Seth has come to love drawing and painting comics characters and celebrities, but sometimes depicts animals and other subjects . He often finds inspiration online by looking at what other artists are working on. “To me, the best thing I’ve learned at Make Studio is to be inspired by other artists.” In his free time, Seth enjoys spending time with friends and family, listening to music, watching movies, and attending church. He is a graduate of Kennedy Krieger Institute schools. In addition to Make Studio’s Showroom Gallery, his work has been seen at Baltimore County Arts Guild in “Totally Open,” in Art Enables’s (DC) “Outside Forces” and "We Make Art. Celebrating Make Studio's Black Artists" at OCA Mocha (UMBC, Arbutus, MD).

Shermilla Fischer (b. 1980) joined Make Studio in 2013. Shermilla enjoys sculpting, painting with acrylics and oils, drawing with charcoal and pastels, embroidery, and other explorations with textiles. He loves watching the news, studying history and other cultures, and is inspired by people, landscapes, and their own imagination. Shermilla laughs easily and often! Their work has been shown at "We Make Art. Celebrating Make Studio's Black Artists" at OCA Mocha (UMBC, Arbutus, MD), "a tenderness: Black, SGL, LGBTQ digital zine" by Rooted Collective, MASKerade with MAP (Baltimore, MD), and “Advocacy Through Art” at OCA Mocha (UMBC, Arbutus, MD).

Although Sutton Clark (b. 2003) is an emerging exhibiting artist, she recalls that she's been drawing for all her life (that she can remember). She says that when she draws, the experience creates her “own little world” because she feels like she becomes part of her drawings. Sutton’s world is clearly a fun one, as her drawings are full of playful and spirited animal characters, humorous dialogues, and inside jokes. She is enjoying expanding her use of different media, including acrylic paint. Sutton loves the beach, playing with her stuffies, Grogu (aka Baby Yoda), and spending time with family. She is a graduate of St. Elizabeth School in Baltimore.

Zach Manuel has a strong interest in comics, animation, and science fiction. A man with many goals in fine and digital art, Zach has diligently expanded his artistic repertoire from colored pencils and markers to include various media and techniques. He now draws his inspiration from animation as well as real life, and often weaves reflections about art-making, dreams, emotional states, and his personal experiences of autism into his artwork. Zach joined Make Studio in 2012. His work was included in the 33rd Annual Drawing and Print competition at Gormley Gallery, Notre Dame of Maryland University (Baltimore, MD). Zach is a graduate of the Harbor School.