PRESS
RELEASE
Paul Butler
Neo-Cons & Dogs
19 May – 25 June 2005
Private view : Thursday,
19 May, 6-9 pm
Artist talk : Wednesday, 8
June, 7-8 pm
Fosterart: 20
Rivington Street, London EC2A 3DU
Gallery
Hours: Friday – Sunday, 11 am until 6 pm
(Hours on Monday – Thursday by
appointment)
Functionaries of power in
courts and boardrooms lurk in monochrome spaces, blinking neon signs and
vermilion tail-lights on the move, world events in blood red, portly balding
figures with intimidating Kissinger-like horn rimmed spectacles, snarling dogs
of war.
Paul Butler's paintings
perpetually shift between emotional registers. The most noticeable shift is
between the paintings playing out everyday scenes with a satiric sense of
humour and those commenting scathingly on recent world events. The diversity in the work is always contained by a
unity attained through Butler’s sense of touch. Not just the routine painter's
sense of touch - Butler’s is particular to him in being cunningly borrowed from
drawing. His use of gloss paint works to speed up the surface, lending the work
a graphic immediacy. The result is a stirring play-off between the medium of
paint and the message conveyed through it.
Key to Butler’s painting
is the symbiotic relationship between painterly technique and subject matter.
Where often painters sacrifice one in the name of the other, in his paintings
they work in empathy to reinforce one another. This strategic counterpoint
between the two is indeed impressive and goes to prove how a message, whether
political or otherwise, can only be achieved through a convincing use of the
medium.
Paul Butler is currently
professor of painting at the Surrey Institute of Art & Design University
College. He has shown widely in the UK and Europe including the John Moores,
East International, British Council – Bologna and an Arts Council touring
exhibition. His most recent one-person exhibition was at Robert Sandleson
Gallery.
A selection of images from
the exhibition are on the website. A catalogue to accompany the exhibition,
with essays by Alex Coles, critic and writer, and Tana Wollen, Head of
Marketing, Channel 4’s 4Learning, is available upon request.
Paul
Butler participates in the Fosterart Collection, an artist-owned body of work
that is lent by Fosterart to public and private companies with the aim of
improving the workplace environment and increasing access to contemporary art.
