Gavin W. Sewell

Boldly Over Horizons is a public art collage and wall-sculpture diptych commissioned by the Department of General Services for Smothers Elementary School in 2022.

The work uses acrylic paint, pen, pencil, ink, china-marker, photographs, ink-transfers, and reflective metallic foils applied with acrylic mediums and polymers. The three dimensional sections are made from found objects adhered with weld adhesives, fasteners, and resin.

The theme of the piece is discovery and exploration personified by great scientists and trailblazers of color. These include aviator Bessie Coleman, mathematician Gladys West, public health innovator Sophia B. Jones, chemist Percy Julian, zoologist Charles Henry Turner, epidemiologist Alice Ball, public intellectual Neil Degrasse Tyson, inventor Elijah McCoy, and astronaut Mae C. Jemison. The initials and birth years of these inspirational people are incorporated into the sculpture at top, along with objects symbolizing their achievements.

The faces are surrounded by a collage of patterns, colors and shapes from Batik and other global weaving traditions which symbolize the warp and woof of time through generations and diverse cultures.

At bottom are golden reflective silhouettes of children encouraging the students to see themselves as part of the ongoing story of science and innovation.

Project facilitation and final installation on site were by Zenith Art Gallery.

This piece was created as a site specific public artwork for Eaton Elementary School in 2021. It was commissioned by the Department of General Services in Washington, DC.

The work is a mixed-media collage and wall-sculpture on wooden panels and canvas. The two-dimensional areas use gessos, pen, pencil, china-marker, Golden and Liquitex brand acrylic paints and mediums, fine papers, photographs, digital prints on acid-free paper, ink-transfer techniques, metallic foils, and other media.

The sculptural elements include both found objects and objects created or altered by the artist. The 3-d objects are attached to the panels using nails, wires, permanent construction adhesives, and then further reinforced with coatings of Golden brand acrylic modeling paste and pouring mediums.

The concept of the piece is ‘art as scavenger hunt’. The work includes many visual and literary references to the history and culture of the school and to the biography of its namesake, General John Eaton. The collage aims to encourage the curiosity of Eaton students about their own participation in history.

Community members contributed ideas, feedback, and photos which were extremely helpful in the creative process. The artist would like to extend special thanks to long-time Eaton art teacher Margaret Delorme whose contribution of photographs was invaluable.

Final on site installation was facilitated by Zenith Art Gallery.

Open Wide the Freedom Gates is a large-scale collagand wall-based sculptural design developed to honor the life and legacy of civil rights leader Dorothy Height. Conceived as a layered visual narrative, the work combines collage, relief sculpture, and interactive architectural elements to reflect both Height’s achievements and the social history of the school community for which the project was proposed.

The design incorporates three-dimensional sections containing symbolic objects, dates, and names connected to Height’s career and to broader histories of civil rights, education, and collective action. Hinged panels integrated into the composition allow portions of the work to open and close, revealing additional sculptural elements and inviting viewers to engage with the artwork as a process of discovery rather than a fixed image.

Materially and chromatically, the project was developed in close dialogue with the architecture of the school site. Color palettes, geometric structures, and surface textures were selected to harmonize with the existing space while maintaining visual clarity and legibility at a civic scale. Multiple color variations—including Blue Sky and Dawn Sky versions—were developed to explore different tonal and symbolic readings, with the dawn palette suggesting continuity, emergence, and futures shaped by collective struggle.

The project was commissioned for design development by the Department of General Services in 2023 and advanced through detailed visualization, material studies, and installation planning, but was ultimately not selected for realization. The proposal remains an example of Sewell’s approach to research-driven public art design, integrating historical narrative, community context, and material experimentation within durable, site-responsive structures.

This commission evolved into a diptych: two large scale pieces, one taking a more painterly approach in acrylics and traditional collage, the other using a large scale ink-transfer technique for a more graphical feel.

This painting was commissioned in 2019, evolving out of a series of abstracts incorporating reflective foils covered in multiple layers of semi-translucent acrylics. The artist worked closely with the collector developing the work from drawings up to the finished artwork.

This piece was created as a site specific commission for a space in New Zealand.

The artist worked closely with the collector to make a visual history of the city of Dargaville with colors and geometries related to the installation site.

From tone and design palettes provided by the collector, the artist proposed several initial ideas as rough sketches. Final preparatory drawings evolved through collaboration and dialogue.

The full size artwork was executed on heavy cotton-duck canvas using archival acrylic mediums, paints, paper, photographs, metallic foils, ink-transfer techniques, pens, pencils, and other media.

After approval by the collector, the collage was taken off the mounting and carefully rolled and crated for shipping. It was restretched and installed on identically sized stretcher-bars at the site in New Zealand.

For more information about commissioned artwork please reach out to the dealer nearest you or fill out the contact form with ‘commission’ in the subject line.

This collage was commissioned by a private collector in 2012 as a mixed-media reinterpretation of a well known Salvador Dali painting, Tuna Fishing.

This design for a series of transparent digital collages for application on glass was created for Waco Airport. The project required integration of imagery provided by community members in aesthetically appealing format that could be repeated on section of a glass wall partition. Designed but not installed.

These designs were created for a large collage work at Waco Regional Airport. Silhouettes surrounded by reflective foils and opalescent paint portray important local animals - the mammoth, desert hawk, and monarch butterfly - juxtaposed with aircraft. The collage material in the background shows thematic imagery and photos of local nature and the surrounding community. Designed but not installed.

These designs propose a large-scale transparent curtain wall artwork celebrating the life and achievements of Benjamin Banneker—the African-American naturalist, mathematician, astronomer, surveyor, and author of influential early almanacs.

Conceived for the glass wall of a school library, the project uses translucent printed film to create a visually dense, light-responsive collage that integrates Banneker’s astronomical diagrams, calculations, quotations, and period scientific instruments with contemporary star charts. Inspired in part by Marc Chagall’s stained-glass windows, the composition emphasizes transparency, layering, and color as tools for discovery rather than illustration.

As light passes through the artwork, shifting colors cast subtle patterns across floors and walls, changing throughout the day and across seasons. Banneker’s quotations and diagrams remain fully translucent—present but understated—encouraging students to encounter and rediscover them over time rather than absorbing them all at once. The work is designed to reward repeated looking and curiosity, allowing historical material to live naturally within a contemporary educational space.

The proposal explored multiple formal approaches, including more painterly stained-glass compositions, angular geometric structures, and designs incorporating clear “portholes” that offer unobstructed views through the glass—each calibrated to the architectural proportions of the curtain wall and the school’s color palette.

This project was commissioned by the Department of General Services in 2021 and developed through multiple design options, but ultimately not selected for installation.

This was a site specific proposal for a public art commission by the Edgar Allen Poe society for Poe Square in Boston in 2012. The design is a collage of welded metal elements suggesting the wrought iron gate of a 19th century church yard. Special attention was paid to the way light would pass through the artwork and cast evocative shadows at dusk and dawn. Final artwork contract was awarded to Stefanie Rocknak. A more detailed project overview and narrative is available here.

This digital collage on paper was commissioned by the Correspondence Wine Co. for its Cabernet Sauvignon, ‘From Away’ available exclusively from Foxcroft Wine Co.

The artwork suggests the time, tradition, and cyclical nature of winemaking with a playful contemporary nod to Aesop’s fable of the fox and grapes.

These are selected commissioned and custom made artworks for individuals and companies. For more information about commissioning artwork please contact the dealer nearest you or fill out the contact form with ‘commission’ in the subject line.