Benjamin Butler

  • Installation view from "Two-Tones, Monochromes, and Other Landscapes" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2020 ©Benjamin Butler photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Installation view from "Two-Tones, Monochromes, and Other Landscapes" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2020 ©Benjamin Butler photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Installation view from "Two-Tones, Monochromes, and Other Landscapes" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2020 ©Benjamin Butler photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Installation view from "Two-Tones, Monochromes, and Other Landscapes" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2020 ©Benjamin Butler photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Installation view from "Two-Tones, Monochromes, and Other Landscapes" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2020 ©Benjamin Butler photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Green Tree (Two-Tone) 緑色の木(二色) 2019 oil on canvas 160.1 × 120.0 cm ©︎Benjamin Butler
  • Yellow Tree (Two-Tone) 黄色の木(二色) 2019 oil on canvas 160.4 × 120.2 cm ©︎Benjamin Butler
  • Blue Tree (Two-Tone) 青色の木(二色) 2019 oil on canvas 160.3 x 120.2 cm ©︎Benjamin Butler
  • Green (Forest Path) 緑(森の小道) 2019 oil on canvas 100.0 × 120.5 cm ©︎Benjamin Butler
  • Green Forest (in six parts) 緑の森(6枚のパーツ) 2019 oil on canvas (6 pieces) 100.4 × 121.2 cm ©︎Benjamin Butler
  • Purple (Landscape) 紫(風景) 2018 oil on linen 80.2 × 100.1 cm ©︎Benjamin Butler
  • Installation view from "Trees Alone" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2016 ©Benjamin Butler photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Installation view from "Trees Alone" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2016 ©Benjamin Butler photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Installation view from "Trees Alone" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2016 ©Benjamin Butler photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Untitled Tree 2016 oil on linen 50.0 × 60.0 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Untitled Tree 2016 oil on linen 50.0 × 60.0 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Untitled Tree 2016 oil on linen 50.0 × 60.0 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Untitled Tree 2015 oil on linen 50.0 × 60.0 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Untitled Tree 2016 oil on linen 50.0 × 60.0 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Untitled Tree 2015 oil on linen 50.0 × 60.0 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Installation view from "Selected Trees" at 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2014 ©Benjamin Butler photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Installation view from "Selected Trees" at 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2014 ©Benjamin Butler photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Installation view from "Selected Trees" at 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2014 ©Benjamin Butler photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Installation view from "Selected Trees" at 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2014 ©Benjamin Butler photo by Kenji Takahashi
  • Grey Tree 2012 oil on linen 60.0 × 50.0 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Pastel Forest 2012 oil on canvas 35.6 × 27.9 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Untitled 2010 water color, color pencil on paper 25.5 × 19 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Untitled 2010 color pencil on paper 25.5 × 19 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Untitled 2010 color pencil on paper 25.5 × 19 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Untitled 2010 color pencil on paper 25.5 × 19 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Untitled 2010 color pencil on paper 25.5 × 19 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Untitled 2010 color pencil on paper 25.5 × 19 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Installation view from "Paintings and Drawings 2010" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2010 ©Benjamin Butler photo by Tsuyoshi Satoh
  • Installation view from "Paintings and Drawings 2010" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2010 ©Benjamin Butler photo by Tsuyoshi Satoh
  • Untitled (Blue,Green,Brown) 2010 oil on linen 182 × 259 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Autumn 2010 2010
 oil on linen 
130 × 193.5 cm
 ©Benjamin Butler
  • DarkTree (Blue,Green,Brown) 2010 oil on linen 193.5 × 130 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Untitled 2010 oil on linen 33 × 24 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Untitled 2010 oil on linen 33 × 24 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Untitled 2010 oil on linen 33 × 24 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Installation view from "Leafless Trees and Sakura" at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2007 ©Benjamin Butler photo by Tsuyoshi Satoh
  • Dark Tree (Blue) 2008 oil on canvas 41 × 50.5 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Leafless Trees 2008 oil on canvas 41 × 50.5 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Untitled (LeaflessTrees) 2006 oil on canvas 152.4 × 243.8 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Two Trees, Blue-Green 2006 oil on canvas 40.5 × 50.5 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Mountain Tree Green 2003 oil on canvas 40.5 × 50.5 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • OceanTree 2003 oil on canvas 50.5 × 40.5 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • P.M. Through the Trees 2003 oil on canvas 60.5 × 76.0 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Ocean Tree 2001 oil on canvas 51.0 × 41.0 cm ©Benjamin Butler
  • Sway 2001 oil on canvas 41.0 × 51.0 cm ©Benjamin Butler

Benjamin Butler was born in Westmoreland, Kansas, USA in 1975. He received an MFA in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2000 and currently lives and works in Vienna, Austria.

Butler continues to exhibit in solo shows in cities around the world, such as New York, Los Angeles, London, Vienna, Basel, Beijing, and Berlin. Significant solo exhibitions in recent years include “Two-Tones, Monochromes, and Other Landscapes”(Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2020), “Silver/Landscapes” (Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York, 2019), “Recent Trees and Monochromes” (Galerie Martin Janda, Vienna, 2018) and “Trees Alone” (Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, 2016). He has also participated in various group exhibitions, internationally, including “sotto voce” (curated by Robert Bordo, Bortolami Gallery, New York, 2019), “Verzweigt” (Museum Sinclair-Haus, Bad Homburg, Germany, 2014), and PS1/MOMA’s Greater New York in 2005, and “Globe as a Palette; Contemporary Art from The Taguchi Art Collection” Hokkaido Obihiro Museum of Art/Kushiro Art Museum/Hakodate Museum of Art/Sapporo Art Museum, Hokkaido, Japan.

Butler creates landscape paintings that are structured around the motifs of mountains, trees and nature. The simplified forms of branches and tree trunks expressed through vertical lines, diagonals, triangular forms and curves are rhythmically reiterated and occupy the entirety of his margin-less canvases in a manner reminiscent of a geometric pattern. Such are complemented through his use of vivid contrasting colors, creating a unique painterly expression that appears to explore the borderline between representation and abstraction.

His works, while harboring various elements in terms of composition, at the same time permeate with a simple and poetic tenderness, as well as an air of contemporary cool. As though appealing to individual memories, they confer upon viewers a time for calm contemplation.

https://benjaminbutler.info/

Solo Exhibitions

2020 “Two-Tones, Monochromes, and Other Landscapes” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2019 “Silver/Landscapes” Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York, NY
2018 “Recent Trees and Monochromes” Galerie Martin Janda, Vienna, Austria
“The Tree” Aura Gallery, Beijing, China
2016 “Forest(s)” Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York, NY
“Trees Alone” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2015 “Another Tree, Another Forest” Galerie Martin Janda, Vienna, Austria
2014 “Green Forest” Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York, NY
“Selected Trees” 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2013 “In the Midst, Between, Betwixt” Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London, UK
2012 “PASTELS” Galerie Martin Janda, Vienna, Austria
“Some Trees” Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York, NY
2010 “Paintings and Drawings 2010” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2009 “These Trees” Galerie Martin Janda, Vienna, Austria
2008 “Dark and Leafless” Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin, TX
2007 “New Trees” Galerie michael Zink, Berlin, Germany
“New Trees” Karyn Lovegrove Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Leafless Trees and Sakura” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2006 “New Trees and Forests” Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin, TX
2005 “Paintings” Groeflin Maag Galerie, Basel, Switzerland
“New Paintings” Karyn Lovegrove Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
“Forest's Edge” Team Gallery, New York, NY
2004 “Tree Alone” Galerie Lisa Ruyter, Vienna, Austria
“Trees” Team Gallery, New York, NY
2003 “Little Mountain” Project Room/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
“Early Spring” Greener Pastures Contemporary Art, Toronto, Canada
2002 “Mountain Painting” Team Gallery, New York, NY

Group Exhibitions

2023 “6 Artists selected by Tomio Koyama Gallery” Hankyu Men's Osaka 1st Floor Stage & 3rd Floor Contemporary Art Gallery, Osaka, Japan
2022 “GREEN MINDS” Mepaintsme (Online)
“contemporary-ism” Objet d' art, Tokyo, Japan
2019 “Globe as a Palette; Contemporary Art from The Taguchi Art Collection” Hokkaido Obihiro Museum of Art/ Kushiro Art Museum/ Hakodate Museum of Art/ Sapporo Art Museum, Hokkaido, Japan
“sotto voce” curated by Robert Bordo, BORTOLAMI, New York, NY
2018 “Uncanny Valley” Vin Vin, Vienna, Austria
“Tomio Koyama Gallery: Works from the Gallery Artists and the Collection 3” 8/ ART GALLERY/ Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2017 “The Secret Life of Plants” curated by Jennifer Coates and Nick Lawrence, Freight + Volume, New York, NY
2016 “Three Paths to the Lake” Galerie Martin Janda, Vienna, Austria
“Grand Exhibition Opening” Aura Gallery, Beijing, China
2014 “Verzweigt” Museum Sinclair-Haus, Bad Homburg, Germany
“Short” Galerie Martin Janda, Vienna, Austria
2013 “Intersection –Contemporary Abstraction and Figuration” Torrance Art Museum, CA
“Imprisoned, Jailbreak” XYZ Collective, Tokyo, Japan
“Land Ho!” curated by Holly Coulis and Ridley Howard, Fine Arts Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
2012 “Disappearing Acts (Act II)” Anna Kustera Gallery, New York, NY
“B-Out” curated by Scott Hug, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
“East West Shift to the Middle Part II” Bill Brady/KC, Kansas City, MO
2010 “Leafless: Glen Baldridge & Benjamin Butler” Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York, NY
“Collections-March” TKG Editions Kyoto, Japan
2009 “Mark-Making: Dots, Lines and Curves” Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin, TX
“DARK SIDE OF THE MOON” Galerie Martin Janda, Vienna, Austria
2008 “Summer Show” Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin, TX
“The Big Gift” Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
“Narcissus” Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA
“Anne Eastman & Benjamin Butler” ATM Gallery, New York, NY
2007 “Horizon” curated by David Humphrey, EFA Gallery, New York, NY
“Landscapes” Southfirst Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
“Inside the Pale” curated by Frank Schroder, Thrust Projects, New York, NY
“Homecoming” Nerman Museum/Epsten Gallery, Overland Park, KA
“Approaching Landscape” Galerie Michael Zink, Munich, Germany
2006 “Palette” curated by Augusto Arbizo, Greenberg van Doren, New York, NY
Karyn Lovegrove Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Shane Campbell Gallery, Oak Park, IL
“Summer Group Show“ Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin, TX
“AIR” curated by Amy Sillman, Monya Rowe Gallery, New York, NY
“Benjamin Butler, Holly Coulis, Ridley Howard” Galleria Glance, Turin, Italy
“Home coming” Nerman Museum/ Epsten Gallery, Overland Park, KS
“Approaching Landscape” Galerie Michael Zink, Munich, Germany
2005 “Hello Sunday” curated by Holly Coulis, Sixtyseven, New York, NY
“Devil's Punchbowl” curated by Katharina Grosse, Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
“On the Beach” curated by Justin Lowe, Printed Matter, New York, NY
“Honeymoon with Romeo” curated by Holly Coulis, Groeflin Maag Galerie, Basel, Switzerland
“Greater New York” P.S.1, New York, NY
“Sad Songs” curated by Bill Congers, Illinois State University, Normal, IL
“where do we come from, what are we? where are we going?” curated by Katherine Bernhardt, Champion Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA
“PULP” Karyn Lovegrove Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2004 “A.C” Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York, NY
“Five Artist Shows” Rove/ Kenny Schachter, London, UK
“Full Disclosure” Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington, MA
“Beat the Reaper” curated by Joe Bradley, Allston Skirt Gallery, Boston, MA
2003 “Greetings from New York: New Abstraction” Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
“Game Over” Grimm/ Rosenfeld, Munich, Germany
“The Larger Room” curated by Mari Eastman, 678 Echo Park Avenue, Los Angeles, CA
2002 “Inaugural Exhibition” Greener Pastures Contemporary Art, Toronto, Canada
2000 “Electraslip Knife” curated by Stephanie Campos, Alternative Space, Chicago, IL
1999 “long cold winter in an endlessnameless” curated by Slater Bradley, Jay Batlle and Amy Sarkisian, Studio 870, Los Angeles, CA

Public Collections

Glenbow Collection
Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art
The Taguchi Art Collection