Kyle Butler

Kyle Butler is an artist from Michigan currently living in Buffalo, New York. His two-dimensional work often uses contrarian formal systems, where procedural guidelines are formed and deformed throughout the development of a series. His subject matter has shifted over time: relationships between competing/cooperating painterly forms and manners of speech, the built environment and dereliction as societal barometer, and laborious mark-making as a record of agitation. He periodically incorporates other media, including performances of choreographed demolition and assembly, re-imagined sculptural fragments of the built environment, and algorithmic sound programming. Butler’s work has been shown at the Albright-Knox, the Burchfield Penney, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Exhibit A, and Lost Coast Culture Machine. In 2014, Butler was commissioned to execute a large performance piece for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche in Toronto, curated by Heather Pesanti of The Contemporary Austin. He has been featured in New American Paintings (2010), and is a Franklin Furnace Fund grant recipient (2016). Kyle received his BFA with a focus in painting from Central Michigan University in 2008 and his MFA in Visual Studies from the University at Buffalo in 2010. He is represented by Nina Freudenheim Gallery, in Buffalo, NY.