The artists working in the region right now do not have a single sound. Some paint the sky. Some cover entire city blocks with figures that stop foot traffic. Some build layered worlds from resin and pigment that take months to complete. What connects the four artists gathered here is not medium or geography, though both matter. It is intention. Each one has built a practice that is distinctly their own, committed to the work with a seriousness that serious collectors recognize. These are artists worth knowing. And in many cases, worth collecting.
Matt Long is a Frederick-based multimedia artist and graphic designer whose client roster includes the National Cherry Blossom Festival, Washington Auto Show, Children's National Hospital, and Disney. His work spans illustration, brand identity, and public art across the Mid-Atlantic region. Long has also worked with brands including Sheetz, SurfAid, and the Frederick Tourism Council, bringing a consistent artistic sensibility to every project regardless of the brief. @artistmattlong
Rose Jaffe works across murals, printmaking, ceramics, and digital illustration, building a practice rooted in themes of human connection, social justice, and the environment. Born and raised in DC and holding a BFA from the University of Michigan, she has painted more than fifty murals across the United States and abroad, with over forty in her hometown. The through-line across all her work is a commitment to dialogue: art as a tool, not simply an object. Beyond the studio, she runs an annual artist residency and teaches adult printmaking classes, work she considers as central to her practice as anything she paints. She has been covered by The Washington Post, City Paper, NBC, and CNN, but the recognition that matters most is the kind found on a neighborhood block, where a mural becomes part of how people understand where they live. rosejaffe.com
Alexandra Squire builds paintings in layers. Starting on canvas or wood, she blends color through a slow, deliberate process, pairing vibrant shades with muted tones and finishing with multiple coats of resin until the surface achieves a depth that reads as effortless. Influenced by Mark Rothko and Piet Mondrian as well as her grandmother, who was also a painter, her work carries a minimalist logic while remaining open to interpretation. Her paintings are held in private and corporate collections across the country and shown nationally in galleries including Alma Gallery, Jules Place, and KW Contemporary Art. alexandrasquireart.com
Christine Cover works in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington DC, making mixed-media paintings that examine the boundaries between seeing and sensing. Using acrylic, oil stick, and pastel, she builds compositions in which floating marks and fields of color are held in tension with representational objects, allowing shifts between recognition and perception to unfold within the picture plane. Grounded in the visual language of Fauvism and Color Field painting, her studio practice is guided by the act of translating lived experience into form through perception, intuition, and response. Her Pink Noise Series is available now. christinecover.com