Conditionality is embedded in Tom Butter’s work, which sometimes rests, sometimes stirs, full of possibility. It is as if the viewer is moving through a painting; as if we are atop a line; as if we are the line; as if a sculpture is another body; as if the body of the sculpture thinks; as if it is about to leap. In creating such ‘conditional’ work, he finds inspiration in the spontaneity of jazz music, in the tensile lightness of sailboats and airplanes and bridges, and in the physical characteristics of certain materials, such as steel. His work is off-kilter, unstable but at peace. Precarious and fresh, each loosely-constrained piece stops just shy of some unstated limit, arriving at ‘just enough’ as if through constant negotiation, like the leap involved with getting a joke—that instant when one might pause, take a breath, and release it into laughter.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2016 Studio 10, Brooklyn, New York
2015 Rafius Fane Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
2001 Jaffe-Friede & Strauss Galleries, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, A.I.R
1997 Curt Marcus Gallery, New York
1993 Curt Marcus Gallery, New York
1993 Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, New York
1992 Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, New York
1991 Curt Marcus Gallery, New York
1988 Pence Gallery, Los Angeles
1988 Curt Marcus Gallery, New York
1987 John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
1987 Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, New York
1986 Curt Marcus Gallery, New York
1986 Lawrence Oliver Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1985 Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Morris Gallery
1984 Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York
1983 Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York
1983 Lawrence Oliver Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Group Exhibitions
2015 Community of Influence, Spencer Brownstone Gallery
2012 Speakers, 111 Front Street Gallery, Brooklyn, N New York
2012 That Go Bump, Sculpture From the New School Art Collection, Kellen Gallery, Parsons the New School for Design, New York City
2012 Paper Band, Jason McCoy Gallery, New York City
2009 Silver Star Award Winners Exhibition, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2009 Parsons Pink Slips, George Adams Gallery New York City
2009 Spctclr Vws, One Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn New York
2007 Mapping Correspondence: Mail Art in the 21st Century, Center for Book Arts, NewYork City
2006 3D: An Exhibition of Contemporary Sculpture, Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
2005 Nobody Sculpts, presented by Nobody Works, Brooklyn New York City
2005 Day of the Dead, Kings County Bar, Bushwick, Brooklyn
2005 Between Experience and Understanding, Korn Gallery, Drew University, New Jersey
2004 Espacio Negativo, Terreno Nyorquino Galeria Nacional, San Jose, Costa Rica
2004 Glass (of) Water, The Painting Center New York (curated by Pamela Lawton)
2004 Slippage: Form and Image in the Disjunction, Collaborative Concepts, Beacon, New York
2003 The 8th International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibition, University of Hawaii Art Gallery, Hawaii
2002 Prints From Vermont Studio Center Press, Flemming Museum, Burlington, Vermont
2001 Invitational Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, Academy of Arts and Letters, New York
2001 A Shriek From an Invisible Box, Meguro Museum, Japan
2000 Pop Mechanics, Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
1999 Drawing in The Present Tense, Aronson Gallery, Parsons School of Design, New York City
1999 Group Exhibition, Curt Marcus Gallery, New York City
1996 The Boat: Object and Metaphor, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York City
1996 The Square Bubble, Union College, Schenectady, New York
1995 Temporarily Possessed, The New Museum, New York City
1995 Group Exhibition, Curt Marcus Gallery, New York City
1993 Group Exhibition, Curt Marcus Gallery, New York City
1993 Three Sculptors, Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo New York City
1993 Selected Works from the Permanent Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
1992 Group Exhibition, Curt Marcus Gallery, New York City
1990 Ten Years of Sculpture: Acquisitions, Pennsylvania Academy, Philadelphia
1990 Formulation and Representation, The Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery, Hunter College, New York City (curated by Susan Edwards) catalogue
1989 Ten Gallery Artists, Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, New York City
1989 The Private Eye, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
1988 Sculpture: Material and Abstraction, Le Musee Cantonal des Beaux-Art, Lausanne, Switzerland; curated by Corinne Diserens
1988 The 1980’s: A New Generation, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
1988 Abstraction 1988, Ronald Greenberg Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri
1988 Sculpture Inside Outside, Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota (travels)
1988 Sculpture Inside Outside, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
1988 Four Sculptors, Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, New York City
1988 Life Forms: Contemporary Organic Sculpture, Freedman Gallery, Albright College, Reading PA
1987 Synthesis, Fuller Goldeen Gallery, San Francisco
1987 Art Against Aids Benefit, Rosa Esman Gallery, New York City
1987 Perspectives from Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon University Art Gallery, Pittsburgh
1986 Sculpture on the Wall, Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut
1986 Sculpture and Works in Relief, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
1986 Inaugural Exhibition, Curt Marcus Gallery, New York City
1986 From Nature, Jack Tilton Gallery, New York City
1986 Physical Presence, Pictogram Gallery, New York City
1986 New York Art Now: Correspondences, Laforet Museum, Tokyo, Japan
1985Affiliations: Recent Sculpture and its Antecedents, Whitney Museum, Stamford, CT
1985 Group Show, Arbitage Gallery, New York City
1985 Contemporary Issues II, Holman Hall Art Gallery, Trenton State College, New Jersey
1985 Translucid, Sculpture at Washington Square, Washington, D.C.
1985 Chromatics, curated by Judd Tully for Modern Art Consultants
1984 A Growing American Treasure: Recent Acquisitions and Highlights, Permanent Collection, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1984 Twentieth Century Sculpture: Selections from the Permanent Collection Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
1984 Selections, Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, New York
1984 Group Show, Totem Bonnier Gallery, New York
1983 Inaugural Exhibition, Diane Brown Gallery, New York
1983 Lifesigns, 55 Mercer Street Gallery, New York
1983 Group Show, Olsen Gallery, New York
1983 Language, Drama, Source and Vision, The New Museum, New York
1983 Intoxication, Monique Knowlton Gallery, New York
1983 New Sculpture: Icon and Environment, Independent Curators, New York, travels to
1983 Group Show, Richard F. Brush Art Gallery, St. Lawrence University, Canton NY
1983 Traveling Group Exhibition, Guild Hall, Easthampton (3.31-5.4); Hyde Collection, Glen Falls (5.24-6.24); Robertson Center for the Arts & Sciences, Binghamton (10.28)
1982 American Abstraction Now, ICA, Virginia Museum, Richmond, Virginia
1982 Summer Exhibition, Lawrence Oliver Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1982 By the Sea, Barbara Toll Fine Arts, New York
1982 Red, Steffanotti Gallery, New York
1982 Critical Perspectives, P.S.I., Long Island City, New York
1982 New Work New York, The New Museum, New York
1982 Energie New York, ELAC, Lyons, France
1982 Group Drawing Show, Steffanotti Gallery, New York
1981 Color Light and Mass: Ten Sculptors, Hallwalls, Buffalo, New York
1980 Art For the Eighties, Galerie Durban, Caracus, Venezuela
Public Collections
Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A.
First National Bank of Chicago,
Illinois Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia
Prudential Insurance Co., Newark, New Jersey
Saks Fifth Avenue, Pasadena, CA
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Weatherspoon Art Gallery, North Carolina
Frederick Wiseman Collection, California
Curatorial work and public installations
1995 Delving and Tinkering, Curator, E.S. Vandam Gallery, New York
1983 Hammarskjold Plaza Sculpture Garden, New York
1982 Art Across the Park Central Park, New York
Grants
1997 New York Foundation for the Arts
1996 Print Project, Washington University, St. Louis
1995 Print Project, University of Arts, Philadelphia
1995 Silver Star Award-Alumni Award, University of the Arts, Philadelphia
1987 New York Foundation for the Arts
1986 National Endowment for the Arts Emerging Artist
1982 National Endowment for the Arts Emerging Artist
1980 National Endowment for the Arts Emerging Artist
Interviews
2014 DeBrincat, Alicia, Improvisation and Assembly, Interview with Tom Butter, Artfile Magazine (04/14) www.artfilemagazine.com/Tom-Butter
1985 Saunders, Wade, Talking Objects: Interviews with Ten Sculptors” Art in America (09/85)
Writing
2015 Far From This Setting, The Art of Meredith James, Whitehot Magazine http://www.whitehotmagazine.com/articles/this-setting-art-meredith-james/3091
2012 In Conversation with Cristobal Lehyt, Whitehot Magazine http://www.whitehotmagazine.com/articles/in-conversation-with-cristobal-lehyt/2508
2011 Thomas Butter interviews Michael Caines, Whitehot Magazine http://www.whitehotmagazine.com/articles/thomas-butter-interviews-michael-caines/221 112
2011Greene Street: A Nexus of Ideas in the Early 70’s, Whitehot Magazine http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/nexus-ideas-in-early-70s/2203
2010 In Conversation with Sanford Biggers, Whitehot Magazine http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/2010-interview-with-sanford-biggers/2054
2009 Interview with David Novros, Part 1, Whitehot Magazine http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/with-david-novros-part-1/1927
2009 Interview with David Novros, Part 2, Whitehot Magazine http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/with-david-novros-part-2/1931
2009 Interview with David Novros, Part 3, Whitehot Magazine http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/with-david-novros-part-3/1934
2009 Thomas Butter Interviews Jack Sal, Whitehot Magazine http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/thomas-butter-interviews-jack-sal/1724
2008 Interview with Alice Aycock, Whitehot Magazine http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/2008-interview-with-alice-aycock/1662
2008 Interview with Dan Walsh, Whitehot Magazine http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/2008-interview-with-dan-walsh/1194
2007 Interview with Glenn Goldberg, Whitehot Magazine http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/glenn-goldberg-interview-part-2/623
2007 Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, interview, Whitehot Magazine http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/magazine-festival-new-york-2007/882
2007 Mary Heilmann, Interview, Whitehot Magazine http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/whitehot-magazine-by-tom-butter/900
2006 Some Thoughts on Eve Hesse, The Brooklyn Rail http://www.brooklynrail.org/2006/07/art/eva1
Teaching History
1988 – present Part-time Faculty, AMT, Parsons The New School for Design, New York
2006 – 2011 Adjunct Lecturer, Art Department, Brooklyn College, City University of New York
2006 – 2007 Director, MFA Program, Visiting Associate Professor, Fine Art Department, Parsons the New School of Design
1998 – 2006 Coordinator, MFA Program, Fine Art Department, Parsons School of Design
2002 – 2004 Visiting Faculty, Dept. of Visual & Environmental Studies, Harvard University
1997 – 1998 Associate Professor, Department of Art, College of New Rochelle
1996 – 1997 Associate Professor, Sculpture, Rhode Island School of Design
1993 – 1994 Assistant Professor, Sculpture Dept., Tyler School of Art, Temple University
1986 – 1987 Visiting Lecturer, Sculpture Department, Yale University
1979 – 1982 Lecturer, Foundation Department, Philadelphia College of Art
Visiting Artist (# of visits)
Bard College
Skidmore College
Chautauqua Institution (8)
Dartmouth College
Reinhart School of Sculpture(3)
Pratt Institute (2)
Arkansas State University
Hampshire College (2)
University of Colorado, Boulder
Mass College of Art (2)
University of Alberta, Edmonton
Montclair State College
Yale University (2)
SUNY Albany
Syracuse University
Wake Forest University
Washington University
Muhlenburg College
SUNY Purchase
Maryland Art Institute
Brandeis University (4)
Michigan State University
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (3)
Princeton University Columbia University (2)
Colby College
Union College
Suffolk University
University of the Arts (5)
Georgia State University
RISD (3)
Boston University
1952 Born in Amityville New York; lives in Fremont Center, works in New York
1977 M.F.A. Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri
1975 B.F.A. Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Bibliography
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Brenson, Michael, “Critic’s Choice,” The New York Times, August 21, 1983
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