Introduction

Tomio Koyama Gallery is pleased to announce Benjamin Butler: Paintings and Drawings 2010, the artist’s third solo show with the gallery. These new works were made during the artist’s recent stay in Kamakura, Tokyo, and Nikko. This is the first opportunity for the gallery to juxtapose the artist’s paintings with their accompanying works on paper.

Concept

Benjamin Butler is well-known for his paintings of landscapes and trees that trace the boundary between representation and abstraction. In these new works, Butler further deconstructs the tree motif, moving deeper into abstract territory. Simplified forms, contrasting color, and varying marks and brushstrokes evoke the work of Piet Mondrian; the American Abstraction of Arthur Dove and Milton Avery; as well as the painting of Frank Stella and Barnett Newman. By combining such reference points with elements of decorative art and kitsch, Butler offers a unique meditation on contemporary painting.

Artist Biography

Benjamin Butler was born in Westmoreland, Kansas, in 1975. After graduating from Emporia State University (Kansas), in 1997, he received a Masters degree in Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in 2000. His most recent solo shows were at Galerie Martin Janda (Vienna), Lora Reynolds Gallery (Austin, Texas), Galerie Michael Zink (Berlin), and Karyn Lovegrove Gallery (Los Angeles). He has been included in various group shows, internationally, including PS1/MOMA’s Greater New York 2005. The artist lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.