Sharon Butler
{{Short description|Painter and art blogger (born 1959)}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Sharon Butler
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1959}}
| birth_place = New London, Connecticut, U.S.
| death_date =
| death_place =
| known_for = Abstract painting, Art blogging
| education = Tufts University, Massachusetts College of Art, University of Connecticut
| movement = Casualism
| style =
| spouse =
| website = {{URL|https://www.sharonlbutler.com/}}
| awards = Creative Capital, Warhol Foundation, Pollock-Krasner Foundation
| alt =
| notable_works = Two Coats of Paint
| image =
| caption =
}}
Sharon Butler (born 1959) is an American artist and arts writer. She is known for teasing out ideas about contemporary abstraction in her art and writing, particularly a style she called "new casualism" in a 2011 essay.{{Cite journal|last=Panero|first=James|date=March 2016|title=Gallery Chronicle|url=https://newcriterion.com/issues/2016/3/gallery-chronicle-8375|journal=The New Criterion}}{{Cite web|title=D.I.Y. Abstraction|url=http://wowhuh.com/posts/036.html|last=Relyea|first=Lane|date=October 8, 2012|website=WOWHUH|access-date=May 22, 2020}}{{Cite journal |last=Geers |first=David |date=March 2015 |title=Formal Affairs |url=https://frieze.com/article/formal-affairs |journal=Frieze |volume=169}} Butler uses process as metaphor and has said in artist's talks that she is keenly interested in creating paintings as documentation of her life.{{Cite web|title=Visiting Artist Talk: Sharon Butler|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b4ttt2MHX4|last=Vermont Studio Center|date=May 1, 1999|website=You Tube|access-date=May 10, 2020}}{{Cite web|title=Light is Beauty: Sharon Butler talks art, life and blogging|url=https://artcritical.com/2018/10/01/leslie-wayne-with-sharon-butler/|last=Wayne|first=Leslie|date=2018-10-01|website=Artcritical|language=en|access-date=2020-05-09}}{{Cite web |last1=Schwartz |first1=Julia |last2=Ralón |first2=Laureano |date=2014-09-19 |title=A Conversation with Sharon Butler |url=http://figureground.org/a-conversation-with-sharon-butler/ |access-date=2020-05-17 |website=Figure/Ground |language=en-US}} In a 2014 review in the Washington Post, art critic Michael Sullivan wrote that Butler "creates sketchy, thinly painted washes that hover between representation and abstraction.Though boasting such mechanistic titles as 'Tower Vents' and 'Turbine Study,' Butler’s dreamlike renderings, which use tape to only suggest the roughest outlines of architectural forms, feel like bittersweet homages to urban decay."{{Cite news|last=Sullivan|first=Michael|date=January 16, 2014|title=Art review: 'Residue' at Ada Rose Gallery|newspaper=The Washington Post}} Critic Thomas Micchelli proposed that Butler's work shares "Rauschenberg’s dissolution of the barriers between painting and sculpture," particularly where the canvases are "stapled almost willy-nilly to the front of the stretcher bars, which are visible along the edges of some of the works."{{Cite web|title=When Paintings Come Apart: Sharon Butler on the Inside Out|url=https://hyperallergic.com/63349/when-paintings-come-apart-sharon-butler-on-the-inside-out/|last=Micchelli|first=Thomas|date=January 12, 2013|website=Hyperallergic|access-date=May 18, 2020}}
From 2016 -2023, her canvases were based on small daily drawings that she made each day (2016-2020) in a phone app and posted on Instagram.{{Cite web|title=Instagram Cats|url=https://hyperallergic.com/461289/sharon-butler-new-paintings-theodore-art/|last=D'Agostino|first=Paul|date=2018-09-22|website=Hyperallergic|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-09}}{{Cite web|title=Good Morning Drawings on Instagram|url=https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/sbgoodmorningdrawings/|last=Butler|first=Sharon|date=2016–2020|website=www.instagram.com|access-date=2020-05-10}} In a 2018 conversation about the process of making paintings from these diminutive digital images, she said that the sense of surface and touch are inherent to a painting must be invented in the digital space. The images are never what they seem, especially when viewed on the phone." Critic Laurie Fendrich called Butler's work "beautiful and grittily compelling," suggesting in a 2021 review that her brushwork and color come out of her earlier casualist approach.The paintings "feel slightly off-balance, but not so much that they’re ugly. They’re actually just right: off-balance only enough to avoid cliché."{{Cite web|last=Fendrich|first=Laurie|date=February 26, 2021|title=Accidental on Purpose: Sharon Butler at Theodore:Art|url=https://artcritical.com/2021/02/26/laurie-fendrich-on-sharon-butler/|access-date=May 5, 2021|website=artcritical}}
In a 2023 review in The Brooklyn Rail, Adam Simon wrote that Butler approaches geometric abstraction with an unusual restlessness and an idiosyncratic penchant for disequilibrium, and he declared that her paintings are full of "innuendo and wit."{{Cite web |last=Simon |first=Adam |date=2022-10-04 |title=Sharon Butler: NEXT MOVES |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2022/10/artseen/Sharon-Butler-Next-Moves |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=The Brooklyn Rail |language=en-US}}
She has said that at the root of her art practice is an effort to understand the relationship between emotion and intellect. "The tension between exacting, mechanical processes -- often digital and screen-based -- and the humanism inherent in handmade images and objects have always been stand-ins -- a visual metaphor -- in my work."
File:Sharon Butler, BQE, 2024, oil on canvas, 50 x 42 inches.jpg
Early life and education
Butler was born in New London, Connecticut, and moved to New York City in the late 1980s.{{Cite book|last=Louden|first=Sharon|title=Living and Sustaining a Creative Life|publisher=Intellect Books Limited|year=2013|isbn=9781783201358|location=United Kingdom}} She has a B.A. in Art History from Tufts University (Medford, MA), a B.F.A. in Painting from Massachusetts College of Art (Boston, MA), and an M.F.A. in Art from the University of Connecticut (Storrs, CT), where she studied with Deborah Dancy, Walter McConnell.{{Cite journal|last=Butler|first=Sharon L.|date=1994|title=From the Spark of Opposites. Diss.|journal=University of Connecticut (School of Fine Arts), 1994.|via=Google Scholar}}{{Cite book|last=Louden|first=Sharon|title=Artists As Culture Producer|publisher=Intellect Books|year=2017|isbn=9781783207282|location=New York}}
Exhibitions
Butler has shown her work internationally at galleries in Baltimore, Birmingham, Brooklyn, Boston, Chicago, Hartford, Miami, London, Los Angeles, Paris, New York, Seattle, Tuscaloosa,and other cities. In 2014, she was the inaugural resident at Counterproof Press where she published a series of etchings that foreshadowed her interest in geometric drawing.{{Cite web |last=Jenne |first=Ginger |date=2017-10-24 |title=Sharon Butler Print Series at Counterproof Press |url=https://counterproofpress.uconn.edu/work/sharon-butler-print-series/ |access-date=2020-05-09 |language=en-US}}
Jennifer Baahng Gallery (New York, NY),{{Cite web |last=Simon |first=Adam |date=2022-10-04 |title=Sharon Butler: NEXT MOVES |url=https://brooklynrail.org/2022/10/artseen/Sharon-Butler-Next-Moves |access-date=2023-08-18 |website=The Brooklyn Rail |language=en-US}} Theodore:Art (Brooklyn, NY),{{Cite journal|last=Riley|first=Benjamin|date=February 2, 2016|title=The Critics Notebook|journal=The New Criterion}}{{Cite journal|last=Halle|first=Howard|date=January 25, 2016|title=Critic's Picks: Sharon Butler|journal=Time Out New York}}{{Cite web|title=Kick Off The Lower East Side, Williamsburg, Bushwick|url=https://vimeo.com/151443491|last=Munk|first=Loren|date=January 11, 2016|website=The James Kalm Report|access-date=May 18, 2020}} Pocket Utopia (New York, NY),{{Cite web|title=Tamara Gonzales and Sharon Butler - An Artist Dialogue Series Event|url=https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2013/05/04/tamara-gonzales-and-sharon-butler-artist-dialogue-series-event|date=May 4, 2013|website=New York Public Library|access-date=May 18, 2020}} and SEASON (Seattle, WA){{Cite news|last=Clemens|first=Gayle|date=May 25, 2017|title=Visual-Arts Picks|work=Seattle Times}}{{Cite news|last=Pini|first=Gary|date=May 10, 2017|title=11 Must-see Art Shows This Week|work=Paper Magazine}}{{Cite news|last=Langer|first=Erin|date=May 1, 2017|title=Seattle Critics' Picks|work=Art Ltd Magazine}} are among the galleries with which Butler has been affiliated. Her work is in collections at the William Benton Museum of Art (Storrs, CT), Eastern Connecticut State University (Willimantic CT), Southern New Hampshire University, and has been published in the Harvard Review.{{Cite journal |last=Butler |first=Sharon |date=2016 |title=Three paintings and six images |journal=Harvard Review |volume=49 |pages=214+ |via=Gale Academic OneFile}}
Arts writing
Butler is an arts writer. In 2007 she founded Two Coats of Paint, which was among the first of the professional art blogs developed by artists.{{Cite web|title=A Not-so-vast Right Wing Conspiracy|url=http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/finch/finch10-26-07.asp|last=Finch|first=Charlie|date=October 26, 2007|website=artnet|access-date=May 17, 2020}} Two Coats of Paint was named one of the best art blogs in New York by Time Out.{{Cite web|title=The best art websites|url=https://www.timeout.com/newyork/art/top-art-websites|last=Halle|first=Howard|date=January 30, 2018|website=Time Out New York|language=en|access-date=2020-05-09}} It was awarded several grants, including the Creative Capital / Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant (2013) for art blogs.{{Cite web|title=Follow these 8 Artist-run Blogs to Keep up with Art Criticism Today|url=https://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/art_scene/follow-these-8-artist-run-blogs-to-keep-up-with-art-criticism-today-54862|last=Fenstermaker|first=Will|date=June 28, 2017|website=ArtSpace}}{{Cite web|title=Sharon Butler - Grantees - Arts Writers Grant Program|url=https://www.artswriters.org/grant/grantees/grantee/sharon_butler|date=2013|website=Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation Art Writers Program|access-date=2020-05-09}} The project has expanded to include a small press, curatorial projects, and an artists' residency program.{{Cite web|title=DUMBO Open Studios: Sharon Butler|url=https://dumboopenstudios.com/guides/sharon-butler/|last=Gavriel|first=Kate|date=2018-04-17|website=DUMBO Open Studios|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-09}} Her essays have been published in The Brooklyn Rail, Gulf Coast, Huffington Post, Hyperallergic, The American Prospect, and other publications. Through her lectures and teaching, she has encouraged artists to contribute to the art community by organizing salons, residency programs, curating exhibitions,{{Cite web|title=The Daily / Curator's Statement|url=https://elycenter.org/the-daily|last=Butler|first=Sharon|date=December 2019|website=Ely Center of Contemporary Art|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-10}} writing art criticism, and other activities that provide opportunities to other artists.{{Cite web|title=TEDxOrlando: Sharon Butler|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro3F_6MvE6c|last=TEDxOrlando|date=January 1, 2011|website=You Tube|access-date=May 10, 2020}} She was inducted into the AICA-USA organization for art critics in 2023.{{Cite web |title=AICA-USA Welcomes New Members |url=https://us15.campaign-archive.com/?u=5388954def921bb66fec2877a&id=fb10774a37&e=19349a3a42 |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=us15.campaign-archive.com}}
Casualism
{{Main|Casualism (art)}}
In 2011, in an essay called Abstract Painting: The New Casualists, published in The Brooklyn Rail, Butler coined the term "casualism" for a new type of abstraction that featured a self-amused, anti-heroic style with an interest in off-kilter composition and impermanence. She suggested that artists' interest in irresolution reflected wider insights about culture and society.{{Cite web|title=ABSTRACT PAINTING: The New Casualists|url=https://brooklynrail.org/2011/06/artseen/abstract-painting-the-new-casualists|last=Butler|first=Sharon L.|date=2011-06-03|website=The Brooklyn Rail|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-09}} Many younger artists responded positively to the essay, embracing the notion of "casualism,"{{Cite book|last1=Fraser|first1=Pamela|title=Beyond Critique: Contemporary Art in Theory, Practice, and Instruction|last2=Rothman|first2=Roger|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|year=2017|isbn=978-1501323461|location=USA|pages=117}}{{Cite web|title=The New Casualists Strike Again|url=https://hyperallergic.com/74330/the-new-casualists-strike-again/|last=Micchelli|first=Thomas|date=June 29, 2015|website=Hyperallergic|access-date=May 10, 2020}}{{Cite journal|last=Westgeest|first=Helen|date=2019|title=Looking at Painting as Watching Slow Video Art: An Intermedial Experience of Disruption in the Work of Corinne Wasmuht|journal=ASAP/Journal|volume=4|issue=3|pages=556|doi=10.1353/asa.2019.0039|s2cid=213029526 }}{{Cite web|title=Keltie Ferris: *O*P*E*N* at the Speed Art Museum: Casualist Painting / Not-cAsual SetTing|url=https://aeqai.com/main/2018/12/keltie-ferris-open-at-the-speed-art-museum-casualist-painting-not-casual-setting/|last=Bickel|first=Megan|date=December 2, 2018|website=Aequi|access-date=May 23, 2020}} while others rejected the term, suggesting it "whiffed of 'labelism,' and 'crypto-institutionalism.'"{{Cite book|last1=Antonini|first1=Marco|title=Golden Age: Perspectives on Abstract Painting Today|last2=Ho|first2=Christopher|publisher=NURTUREart|year=2014|location=Brooklyn NY|pages=7}} Subsequent interviews and art reviews of Butler's own work made clear that ideas for the original article were rooted in her own painting practice and artist statement. The Casualist tendency continued to inform her work for many years, although she eventually returned to more traditional stretched-canvas formats.{{Cite web|title=Sharon Butler's New Casualist paintings at The Painting Center in New York|url=https://www.theartblog.org/2013/12/sharon-butlers-new-casualist-paintings-at-the-painting-center-in-new-york/|last=Johnson|first=Elizabeth|date=December 26, 2013|website=Artblog}}{{Cite web|title=Philosophical Paintings that Bare Their Process|url=https://hyperallergic.com/271576/philosophical-paintings-that-bare-their-process/|last=Neal|first=Patrick|date=February 5, 2016|website=Hyperallergic|access-date=May 10, 2020}}
Awards and residencies
Butler has been awarded the Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant (1991),{{Cite web|title=Sharon Butler {{!}} Works {{!}} Pollock Krasner Image Collection|url=https://pkf-imagecollection.org/artist/Sharon_Butler/?list_url=/artists?sort=AE&page=1&letter=B|website=pkf-imagecollection.org|language=en|access-date=2020-05-17}} and the Creative Capital/ Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writing Program Grant for Art Blogs (2013, with follow-up grant in 2016). She has also received residencies from Art21 (PBS affiliate), New York, NY (2009),{{Cite web|title=History|url=https://art21.org/about/history/|website=Art21|language=en|access-date=2020-05-17}} Counterproof Press (2014),{{Cite web|title=Counterproof Press 2014-2015|url=https://counterproofpress.uconn.edu/2014-2015/|date=2015|access-date=May 18, 2020}} Yaddo (2015, 2018),{{Cite web|title=Yaddo Guest Artists|url=https://www.yaddo.org/artists/artist-guests/visual-artists/|date=2020|access-date=May 18, 2020}} and the Cultural Space Subsidy Program (2015–2018, 2019–2021, 2022- 2025).{{Cite web|title=Cultural Space Subsidy Program|url=https://www.twotreesny.com/about-us/cultural-space-subsidy-recipients|date=2015|access-date=May 18, 2020}} She was inducted into American Abstract Artists in 2023.{{Cite web |title=American Abstract Artists |url=https://americanabstractartists.org/ |access-date=2024-06-19 |language=en-US}}