NYAB Event - Ben Butler "Limits of the Mind"

Ben Butler "Limits of the Mind"

Coleman Burke Gallery

This event has ended.

Coleman Burke Gallery presents Limits of the Mind, a solo exhibition featuring new works by artist Ben Butler.

An opening reception will be held on Friday, March 18th from 6 – 8pm. In his sculpture and drawings, Butler employs deceptively simple processes that manifest spectacularly complex forms and images. Within a strict set of parameters, each piece grows by means of accumulated gestures or marks, resulting in work that alludes to both the systematic nature of human thought and activity and to the overwhelming complexity and diversity of natural forms. The exhibition title, Limits of the Mind, suggests Butler’s interests in a particular level of complexity, the threshold between comprehension and wonder. The sprawling floor sculpture Drift presents to the viewer a richly evocative cluster of forms, somewhat geological, vaguely biomorphic and decidedly complex. Closer examination, however, reveals what Butler calls “the story of its making”, the process of shaping wooden boards, modestly and incrementally, and arranging them in sequence. The ink drawings, from the ongoing Invention series, are built from intricate lines that follow a simple and strict grid pattern. But the lines weave and undulate in response to each other and together render a surprising variety of forms ranging from torn fabric fragments to vast topographical maps. Although the work draws from disparate sources and influences, Butler has most recently found a focused interest in its relation to scientific theory, particularly that of Stephen Wolfram, whose book, A New Kind of Science, demonstrates how the simplest of computer programs can generate immensely complex results and even randomness. Butler is interested in the implications of this discovery and how, through the use of his “programs”, he can offer a contemplative visual experience on our understanding of both the human mind and natural growth. The work draws us in and rewards our careful looking. As the artist describes, “Every thing has a source. When the order of things eludes us, we often mistake complexity for chaos, and therefore miss the wonderful sources of things.”

Ben Butler is a Professor of sculpture at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. He received a B.A. in Visual Art from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine and continued his education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, receiving a M.F.A. in Sculpture. His exhibition On Growth was at Rhodes College’s Clough Hansen Gallery in January 2011. He has exhibited his work across the country, with solo shows at Coleman Burke Gallery in Brunswick, Maine, Zg Gallery in Chicago, John Davis Gallery in Hudson, New York, Plane Space in New York, and Suyama Space in Seattle, among others. For his work Butler has received honors that include a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Individual Artist Grant, as well as fellowships at numerous artist residency programs such as the MacDowell Colony, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, and the UCross Foundation.