Benjamin Butler (artist)
Encyclopedia
Benjamin Butler is an American artist, based in Brooklyn, New York.
and raised in Wamego, Kansas
, Butler studied painting at Emporia State University
before attending graduate school at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to earn his Masters of Fine Arts in 2000. He subsequently moved to New York City
, having his first solo show of paintings at Team Gallery in 2002. He soon earned critical accolades for his paintings of mountains and trees, and followed with international exhibitions in New York City, Toronto, Tokyo, Vienna, London, Berlin, Austin, Basel, and Los Angeles. In 2005, his work was included in MoMA PS1's survey exhibition, Greater New York. He is currently represented by Tomio Koyama in Tokyo, Martin Janda in Vienna, Michael Zink in Berlin, and Klaus von Nichtssagend in New York.
Ken Johnson described his work in the New York Times in 2005: "Mr. Butler is toying like a Pop artist with conventions of early 20th-century abstraction. Mondrian's systematic abstraction of trees comes most immediately to mind. Mr. Butler may be thinking about the decline of the once revolutionary Modernist style into kitsch, and in that respect he is updating artists like Peter Halley and Sherrie Levine. But like those artists, he also revels in painting as an end in itself; so he and we get to have it both ways: we can be both knowing intellectuals and paint-loving hedonists".
Biography
Born in Westmoreland, KansasWestmoreland, Kansas
Westmoreland is a city in and the county seat of Pottawatomie County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 778. Westmoreland is part of the Manhattan, Kansas Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
and raised in Wamego, Kansas
Wamego, Kansas
Wamego is a city in Pottawatomie County, Kansas, United States. The population was 4,246 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Manhattan, Kansas Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Wamego is located at...
, Butler studied painting at Emporia State University
Emporia State University
Emporia State University is a university in the city of Emporia in Lyon County, Kansas, just east of the Flint Hills.- History :...
before attending graduate school at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to earn his Masters of Fine Arts in 2000. He subsequently moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, having his first solo show of paintings at Team Gallery in 2002. He soon earned critical accolades for his paintings of mountains and trees, and followed with international exhibitions in New York City, Toronto, Tokyo, Vienna, London, Berlin, Austin, Basel, and Los Angeles. In 2005, his work was included in MoMA PS1's survey exhibition, Greater New York. He is currently represented by Tomio Koyama in Tokyo, Martin Janda in Vienna, Michael Zink in Berlin, and Klaus von Nichtssagend in New York.
Ken Johnson described his work in the New York Times in 2005: "Mr. Butler is toying like a Pop artist with conventions of early 20th-century abstraction. Mondrian's systematic abstraction of trees comes most immediately to mind. Mr. Butler may be thinking about the decline of the once revolutionary Modernist style into kitsch, and in that respect he is updating artists like Peter Halley and Sherrie Levine. But like those artists, he also revels in painting as an end in itself; so he and we get to have it both ways: we can be both knowing intellectuals and paint-loving hedonists".
External links
- Benjamin Butler on the Klaus von Nichtssagend website
- Benjamin Butler on the Martin Janda website
- Benjamin Butler on the Tomio Koyama website
- Benjamin Butler on the Michael Zink website
- Benjamin Butler home page