Sharon Butler

Sharon Butler (born 1959) is an American artist and arts writer, born in in New London, Connecticut and based in New York City. She is known for abstract paintings that reflect on the structures, objects, visions, and energies of everyday life, and is keenly interested in documenting what she calls "the daily." Since 2016, her canvases have been based on small daily drawings that she made each day (2016-2020) in a phone app and posted on Instagram. In a 2018 conversation about the process of making paintings from these diminutive digital images, she said that the sense of surface and touch are inherent to a painting must be invented in the digital space. The images are never what they seem, especially when viewed on the phone. "One thing I have learned is that expectations have little to do with reality". 
== Exhibitions ==
Butler has shown her work internationally at galleries in Baltimore, Brooklyn, Boston, Chicago, Miami, London, Los Angeles, Paris, New York, Seattle, and other cities. In 2014, she was the inaugural resident at Counterproof Press where she published a series of etchings that foreshadowed her interest in geometric drawing. At Yaddo in 2015 she was selected the Patricia Highsmith-Plangman Resident. Theodore:Art (Brooklyn, NY), Pocket Utopia (New York, NY), Lenore Gray (Providence, RI), and SEASON (Seattle, WA) are among the galleries with whom Butler has been affiliated.
== Arts writing ==
Butler is an arts writer, and, in 2007, she founded Two Coats of Paint, which was among the first of the professional art blogs developed by artists. She felt strongly that access to blogging tools and online media enabled artists to take part in the conversation which had, up until that point, been exclusively the purview of the gatekeepers--the commercial galleries and mainstream art publications. Through her lectures and teaching, she has encouraged artists to contribute to the art community by organizing salons, residency programs, curating exhibitions, writing art criticism, and other activities that provide opportunities to other artists. Two Coats was named one of the best art blogs in New York and was awarded several grants, including the Creative Capital / Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant (2013) for art blogs. The project has expanded to include a small press, curatorial projects, and an artists' residency program. Her essays have been published in The Brooklyn Rail, Gulf Coast, Huffington Post, Hyperallergic, The American Prospect, and other publications.
== Casualism ==
In 2011, in a essay called "Abstract Painting: The New Casualists", published in The Brooklyn Rail, Butler coined the term "casualism" for a new type of abstraction that featured a self-amused, anti-heroic style with an interest in off-kilter composition and impermanence. She felt that artists' interest in irresolution reflected wider insights about culture and society. Many artists responded positively to the essay and embraced the notion of "Casualism," while others rejected the term as snide and pejorative. It became clear in later interviews and art reviews of Butler's work that ideas for the article were rooted in her own painting practice and artist statement. The Casualist tendency continued to inform her work for many years, although she eventually returned to more traditional stretched-canvas formats. 
== Education ==
Butler has a B.A. in Art History from Tufts University (Medford, MA), a B.F.A. in Painting from Massachusetts College of Art (Boston, MA), and an M.F.A. in Art from the University of Connecticut (Storrs, CT). 
== Teaching ==
After teaching for thirteen years at Eastern Connecticut State University, where she received early tenure and achieved the rank of full professor, Butler left full-time teaching to focus on painting and writing. Since 2014, she has lectured in the art departments at Brown, Cornell, Parsons School of Design, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the University of Connecticut, and the New York Academy of Art. 
==In the media==
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== References ==
==External links==
* Sharon Butler on instagram
* Sharon Butler on twitter
* Brief Biography - SHARON L. BUTLER
* Sharon Butler | Artist Bio and Art for Sale | Artspace
* Sharon Butler, Author at Two Coats of Paint
* Sharon Butler - 11 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy
* LDSArt.com. Sharon Butler
Category:1959 births
Category:People from New London, Connecticut
Category:American artists
Category:University of Connecticut alumni
Category:Tufts University alumni
Category:Massachusetts College of Art and Design alumni
Category:Bachelor's degrees
Category:Master's degrees