Kathy Butterly is an American sculptor born in
Amityville, New York
Amityville () is a Political subdivisions of New York State#Village, village near the Babylon (town), New York, Town of Babylon in Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County, on the South Shore (Long Island), South Shore of Long Island, in New Yo ...
in 1963. She lives and works in New York City. Butterly received her
Bachelor of Fine Arts
A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases.
Background
The Bachelor ...
from
Moore College of Art
Moore College of Art & Design is a private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its undergraduate programs are available only for female students, but its other educational programs, including graduate programs, are co-educational.
Hist ...
in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
in 1986 and her
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.)
is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...
from
University of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...
in 1990.
Butterly's work consists of multi-layered glazed ceramic sculptures presented on pedestals or plinths specific to the works in question.
Peter Schjeldahl
Peter Charles Schjeldahl (; March 20, 1942 – October 21, 2022) was an American art critic, poet, and educator. He was noted for being the head art critic at ''The New Yorker'', having earlier written for ''The Village Voice'', ''ARTnews'', and ...
has called her "today’s liveliest master of clay." Her work has been compared to that of
George Ohr
George Edgar Ohr (July 12, 1857 – April 7, 1918) was an American ceramic artist and the self-proclaimed "Mad Potter of Biloxi" in Mississippi. In recognition of his innovative experimentation with modern clay forms from 1880 to 1910, s ...
because of its "penchant for crumpled shapes, twisted and pinched openings." Among Butterly's vast library of visual references to historical ceramics, her particular invocation of Ohr in her "thin-walled, manipulated pieces" has also been noted by
Roberta Smith
Roberta Smith (born 1948) is co-chief art critic of ''The New York Times'' and a lecturer on contemporary art. She is the first woman to hold that position.
Early life
Born in 1948 in New York City and raised in Lawrence, Kansas. Smith studied at ...
. She contorts traditional ceramic forms before adding layer upon layer of glaze, even to the point of adding volume in some cases, firing the works repeatedly. Butterly is well known for her glaze development and use of color, deploying a range of materials to achieve various finishes from translucent varnishes to puddles of neon color. She eschews large-scale formats, preferring concise compositions expressing various moods.
Major solo exhibitions include: ''ColorForm (2019) at Manetti Shrem Museum of Art;'' ''Thought Presence (2018)'' at James Cohan Gallery; ''Kathy Butterly- The Quality of a Line'' at The Armory Fair (2017); ''The Weight of Color'' at Shoshana Wayne Gallery (2015); ''Enter'' at Tibor de Nagy Gallery (2014); ''Freaks and Beauties: Opener 10: Kathy Butterly'' at The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum. Her work was included in the ''54th Carnegie International''. She is represented by
James Cohan Gallery
James Cohan is a contemporary art gallery in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.
History
The gallery had a branch in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. It opened another in the former French Concession of Shanghai in 20 ...
in New York, and the Shoshana Wayne Gallery in Santa Monica.
In 2018, Butterly's work was included in a gift of modern ceramics by Robert A. Ellison Jr. to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Kathy Butterly Artist WebsiteButterly biography at Carnegie International
Review of Butterly's Work in ''The Brooklyn Rail''
1963 births
Living people
American sculptors
Moore College of Art and Design alumni
University of California, Davis alumni
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