Happy New Year! See you at Pocket Utopia on Sunday.
From the press release:
Pocket Utopia is pleased to present �Precisionist Casual,� a solo
exhibition of new paintings by Sharon Butler. The exhibition will
feature Butler�s stapled, washed canvases, unstretched yet arranged on
stretchers.
Butler finds herself pulled between the worldly confines of the
Precisionists of the early twentieth century and the fey liberation of
today�s Casualist abstraction. Like the Precisionists, Butler is drawn
to urban settings, structures, and HVAC architecture
� all in evidence from the windows of her Bushwick studio. Yet, like
the Casualists, she seeks a mode of presentation that evokes more than
the triumphs and laments of industrialization that earlier artists have
already plumbed so well, embracing those inconsistent realities and
searching for new ones.
In Butler�s new work, stretchers are no longer hidden, voiceless
platforms for paintings but rather partially revealed elements of the
work, haphazardly wrapped with wrinkled tarps. The resulting
Rauschenbergian sense of earthy imperfection and chaos, though, is
balanced by well-anchored painting distinguished by skewed perspective,
geometric structure, sensitivity to form, minimalist economy of detail,
and worn-out pastels.
With a sensibility that resists serial rigor and jettisons the notion
that you can get everything right, Butler fully realizes her belief
that the most interesting and enduring stories are imperfect and
incomplete, showcasing an appealingly unresolved tension between
restless impetuosity and grounded rigor. Her new paintings seamlessly
combine the irresoluteness of contemporary abstraction with the
confidence of the Modern.
“Precisionist
Casual” is Butler’s first solo show at Pocket Utopia.
Special Program Dates:
Sat., Jan. 19, 4pm – 6pm, Gorky�s Granddaughter
Mon., Jan., 28, 6pm – 8pm, Raphael Rubinstein
Sun., Feb., 17, 4pm – 6pm, Kate Wadkins
“Sharon Butler: Precisionist Casual, New Paintings,” Pocket Utopia, 191 Henry Street
New York, NY. January 8-February 17, 2013. Opening reception Sunday, January 6, 6-8 pm.
Gallery Hours: Wed. – Sun. 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Directions: Pocket Utopia is located between Clinton and Jefferson on
the Lower East Side of Manhattan. By subway, the F train to East
Broadway is 2 blocks away. Map
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