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Sharon Butler
tatement
After a five year hiatus from painting to explore digital and installation projects, this series marks Sharon’s return to painting. These precarious geometric abstractions were inspired by paintings her father made in the Sixties. A stockbroker by trade, he was a reclusive alcoholic who liked to hole up in the basement on weekends and paint. His main influences were Klee, Mondrian, Cezanne, Picasso, Braque, and Miro. He worked fairly quickly and didn't agonize over specific colors or shapes. Yet his paintings – all easel-sized abstractions on canvas board, featuring collaged materials – have a prepossessing brushwork and simple charm. In 1969, he stopped drinking and never painted again. Sharon’s new paintings, which are based on images of observation towers, capture the innocence, vulnerability, and isolation she sees in his work.
Profile
Images of Artwork:
Link to artwork: http://www.easternct.edu/personal/faculty/butlers/artwork
Paintings: 2007, 18” x 24,” oil on canvas board.
Sketchbook images: 2007, 8.5” x 10,” scanned from an open Canson sketchbook, pencil on paperEducation
University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut. 1994: M.F.A.
Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, Massachusetts: B.F.A.
Tufts Universtiy, Medford, Massachusetts: B.A., art history.
Solo Exhibitions:
2006 Sharon L. Butler: Quotidian Analytics,” Alexy Von Schlippe Gallery of Art, University of Connecticut, Avery Point, CT
2005 “Moby Dick, Used,” installation project, New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford, MA
2003 “Dickathon,” animated projection created by Sharon L. Butler and Writers’ Archive, Edge Festival
(in conjunction with the International Festival of Arts & Ideas), New Haven, CT
2001 Sharon L. Butler: Fontainebleau, Lenore Gray Gallery, Providence, RI.
2000 Project Room: Sharon L. Butler, Central Fine Arts, New York, NY.
1999 Sharon L. Butler: Natural Fictions, Lenore Gray Gallery, Providence, RI.
1998 Sharon L. Butler: Pure Pigment Fiction, Grand Central, Tampa, FL.
1997 Sharon L. Butler: New Work, Central Fine Arts, New York, NY.
1996 Sharon L. Butler: Paintings, Z Gallery, New York, NY
1995 Sharon L. Butler: Yellow Paintings, Gallery One, Providence, RI
1992 Sharon L. Butler: Paintings, Slater Museum, Norwich, CT
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2007 “Cultural Identity,” National Academy of Arts, Sofia, Bulgaria
2006 “All Systems Go,” Pierogi 2000, Brooklyn, NY
2005 “Building for the Future,” New Britain Art Museum, New Britain, CT.
2003 “Like Life: Projects by David Lloyd Brown, Sharon L. Butler, Jessica Schwind, Joseph Smolinski
and Andrea Wollensak,” Hygienic Art, New London, CT.
2002 “Sense/Language,” Akus Gallery, Eastern Connecticut State University, Wiillimantic, CT
“Salon,” Grand Central Gallery, Boston, MA
“Summer Invitational,” Museum Editions, New York, NY2001 Boston International Fine Art Show, Grand Central Gallery, Boston MA.
Summer Invitational Exhibition, Lenore Gray Gallery, Providence, RI.
Selections, Museum Editions, New York, NY.
2000 Millenium: New Gifts and Acquisitions, William Benton Museum of Art, Storrs, CT.
1998 Summer Invitational, Snyderman Gallery, Philadelphi, PA
The Biennial at Ben Shahn Galleries: Lines of Direction, William Patterson University, Wayne, NJ
1997 New York Draweres: The Pierogi 2000 Flatfiles, Gasworks, London, traveling to Corner House, Manchester, UK
Current Undercurrent: Working in Brooklyn, The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NYReviews/essays
Elizabeth Schultz, "Creating Icons: Melville in Visual Media and Popular Culture," A Companion to Melville, ed. Wyn Kelley (Cambridge: Blackwell Publishing, forthcoming).
“The Seafaring Metaphor,” Marion M. Callis, edited by Jonathan Stevenson, essay for ‘Moby Dick, Used’ at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford MA, 2005.
“Like Life: Projects by David Lloyd Brown, Sharon Butler, Jessica Schwind, Joseph Smolinski and Andrea Wollensak,” Marion M. Callis, catalogue essay, Hygienic Art Galleries, New London, CT, 2003.
“Pure Pigment Fiction: The Paintings of Sharon L. Butler,” Dion Kliner, essay, Grand Central Gallery,
Tampa, Florida, 1998.
“Sharon Butler: Picture This,” Wolf-Dieter Stoffelmeier, Central Fine Arts Gallery, exhibition essay, 1997.
“The Real, the Imagined and the Imagining in the work of Sharon L. Butler,” Dominique Nahas, catalogue essay, Central Fine Arts, New York, 1997.
“Words & Images from the Artists,” essay, Ben Shahn Galleries at Wm. Patterson University, 1997.
“In Kent: 2 Galleries, 3 Sites, 4 Shows,” Vivian Raynor, The New York Times, Aug.8, 1993.
Teaching
2000- Associate Professor, Department of Visual Arts,
Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic, CTAwards / Fellowships / Residencies:
2006 Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism: Artists Fellowship
Connecticut State University: Research Grant
2004 Red Cinder Creativity Center, Na’alehu, Hawai’i: Artist’s’ Residency
Eastern Connecticut State University: Faculty Development Grant, “Moby Dick, Used at the New Bedford Whaling Museum”
2002 Connecticut State University: Research Grant; “Outlines and Diagrams”
1997 Blue Mountain Center Artists and Writers Colony: Fellowship
1990-91 University of Connecticut: Graduate Assistantship
1988 Vermont Studio Center: Work Study Grant
1989-90 Pollock-Krasner Foundation: Grant Recipient
