We’re thrilled to announce Art Enables' final opening reception of our 25th year, celebrating three exciting new exhibitions!:

•  an adventure-fueled solo show by Matt Schwab (in which you can vote for your favorite heroes);

• a 2-person exhibition by Art Enables artist Michael Haynes and visiting artist Estéban Whiteside with a series of charming diorama-like tableux

•  and a studio gallery show guest-curated by the talented Margaret Bakke of Friends Artspace. 

Please join us for light bites and refreshments, and mingle with the artists. Explore the sweet mini scenes in “Small World” and learn which of Matt’s treasure-seeking heroes smells like Mountain Dew. 

More on each exhibition below:

Matt Schwab: Treasure Seekers Seasons 1 - 15

October 31, 2026 - March 6, 2027

Art Enables is thrilled to present a solo show by Art Enables resident artist Matt Schwab, showcasing Matt’s characteristic creativity, ingenuity, and humor through his planned cartoon series, Treasure Seekers. More on the show from the artist:

“Treasure Seekers is my idea for an animated, action/adventure comedy TV series where groups of strangers are chosen to defeat villains and reclaim important treasure from devious foes. The series has so many characters with impressive powers, colorful costumes, amusing quotes, and humorous shenanigans.

Every season has a new set of characters. A magical oracle uses their magic to find 3-5 (sometimes more) strangers and determines them to be the perfect individuals to be chosen as heroes. They start out as a normal set of humans, but after they each receive a magic jewel, they’re transported to another realm that needs to be saved. When they get there, they are transformed into the hero versions of themselves, sometimes becoming part or totally animal, with special skills and powers. The oracle explains the situation about why the treasure in peril is important and all about the villain who’s trying to get it. Sometimes the treasure is gold and jewels and sometimes it might be something like magical books or weapons with gold and/or silver in them. The heroes are assigned to obtain the treasure before the villain can, or to get it back from the villain if it’s already been stolen.

The show is unique, epic, inspiring, very detailed, and funny. I hope to one day have 100 seasons. Right now, I have about 20. Ideally, I want to bring something new to American popular culture. Even if Treasure Seekers isn’t made into a cartoon right away, it’s still good practice for me. If I can’t make Treasure Seekers into a cartoon, I hope to at least make either a comic book series or a regular drawing series.

This exhibition shows 15 “seasons” of Treasure Seekers through drawings and character cut-outs. Each has information about its setting, heroes, and villains, with the leader of each group of heroes spotlighted. Please use the QR code to vote for your favorite 5 heroes, and I will use the 5 favorites to plan a special all-star season with those characters. I am also interested in collecting feedback and advice about how to work in animation. Please tell me if you think I should make cartoons.”

- Matt Schwab

Michael Haynes + Estéban Whiteside: Small World

October 31, 2026 - March 6, 2027

In “Small World,” Art Enables artist Michael Haynes and visiting, self-taught artist Estéban Whiteside offer 16 small-scale, diorama-like tableaux. Cut from wood and painted and/or finished with drawings on paper, these scenes feel like mini theater stages as much as children’s toy sets. Characters and objects are arranged to conjure pleasantly familiar, collectively shared stories and experiences.

Both artists draw on media and activities familiar to those who grew up in the 80s and 90s. Michael Haynes brings a crew of Sesame Street characters together for a charming picnic, complete with a gingham blanket and a line of invading ants. In one of Whiteside’s works, a family gathers around a living room TV to watch TGIF sitcoms. His other works show wholesome activities like fishing, hide-and-seek, and a Little League game – all fond childhood memories. Borrowing characteristics from classic, handmade wooden toys, these good-natured scenes bathe the viewer in the glow of an archetypal childhood.

Threats do encroach on some of these little worlds, but where they rise, they are instantly neutralized. In Haynes’ work, both a dinosaur chasing a car and the driver inside it are smiling, and the title assures us the dinosaur is a friendly one. Two superheroes are on the scene to save a train from an approaching monster, and even the actors in “Bear in the Yard with the Brothers” all seem pleased with their meeting, which might be frightening in the real world. All the “bad guys” are either actually “good guys” or safely ensnared in our hero's net.

The sense of play that informs the works’ subject and format was also part of each artist’s process in making the show, each influencing the other to experiment. Haynes’ portfolio is a profusion of paper cut-out characters, seemingly waiting to be cast and combined in their own stories. Inspired by Whiteside’s work, Haynes experimented for the first time with building these narratives using three-dimensional wooden forms. And Whiteside, whose work often deals with heavier subjects, was inspired by Haynes’s to linger on themes of sincere joy. 

These works both are and are not of the “real world.” In their isolation, they are memories and they are fantasies in which we can see everything will turn out okay. In fact, we feel we could reach in and move pieces around to ensure that they will. Despite the goings-on of the larger world, these small worlds preserve pockets of reverie and comfort, kind and earnest resting places for weary eyes.

All This and Heaven, Too

Curated by Margaret Bakke

October 31, 2026 - March 6, 2027

Art Enables is honored to have our next studio gallery exhibition guest-curated by the brilliant Margaret Bakke, longtime DC-area resident and Director of Friends Artspace in Arlington, VA. More on the show from Margaret:

“I have been endlessly inspired each time I’ve excavated the flat files at Art Enables. Choosing one artwork from each artist for this exhibition was intuitive and delightful.

Each artist represented here possesses a profound signature vision and an unmistakable style. Formally, the work at Art Enables is unparalleled in its compositional mastery. I have truly never seen 11 x 17 inches of paper made, again and again and again, to feel so full and expansive.

“All This and Heaven Too” brings together works that speak to abundance, place, homecoming, and nostalgia. There is a sense in the work of a world richly populated. The recurring presence of animals adds another register: as companions, witnesses, and imaginative stand-ins within these artists’ worlds.

I am grateful to be a part of Art Enables and have the privilege to glimpse the unusual generosity of both the artists and the art.”