ESU alumnus shows at New York art gallery

A graduate of the Emporia State University art program is making a splash in the New York City gallery scene with his first solo exhibition.

Twenty pieces by Benjamin Butler in an exhibit called "Mountain Paintings" have been on display at Team Gallery in Manhattan throughout December.

Butler earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from ESU in 1997 and later earned his Master of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

"The response is really enthusiastic," said gallery director José Friere. "We have sold 19 pieces out of the show to prominent collectors, well known painters and dealers. There's a broad consensus building behind his work."

"They're all landscapes and the scale is modest, but his paintings don't lay back on the wall," said Friere. "Sometimes his color combinations really clash. They can be high-keyed and completely artificial."

The 28-year-old artist was born in Westmoreland and grew up in Wamego. "I've been interested in art since I was very young," he said, "making drawings, building secret forts, and working on pseudo-science experiments usually involving household items. Art was an escape for me; I wanted things to be magical."

Butler spent lunch breaks, study halls and as much other time as he could in high school painting. "This is when the obsession really kicked in," he said. "At this point I was really only interested in Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse because they were they best that I knew of."

At ESU, his exposure to art history broadened, and he had the opportunity to hone his drawing, painting and printmaking talents under the instruction of Dan Kirchheger and Richard Slimon. "I was influenced by the way that they approached their own artmaking, professionally and passionately. They were the first real artists I had ever met," he said.

At the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in 1997 Butler spent a lot of time in the library catching up on topics in contemporary art by poring over art books, old periodicals, and all the new art magazines. He spent his third semester in New York City, studying independently, working for artists, and visiting galleries.

"In the summer of 1999, I lived for two months in another artist's installation. Rirkrit Tiravanija built a replication of his East Village apartment in the gallery space at Gavin Brown's Enterprise in Chelsea. I heard there was a vacancy and moved in. I met a lot of interesting people from all professions," he said.

A year later, Butler returned to New York, took a job as an art gallery installer and started making new paintings. Butler created the "Mountain Paintings" series after his grandmother asked him to make her a landscape painting. He set out to produce paintings that would both please her and also exist within the parameters of the New York art world.

The New York Times took notice of the show with a Dec. 20 review that described Butler's work as "…at once conservative and experimental…the best of them hold your attention more than you initially expect. Their mildly hallucinatory colors, economic brushwork and descriptive abbreviations counter the vast spaces implied by the artists Northern Romantic subjects."

"We're really proud of him," said ESU art department chair Elaine Henry. "He was a good student while he was here, and this just confirms that he's got a bright future in the art world."

Last Updated July 2, 2007>