FRONT ROOM After a trip to the Netherlands in 2008, Claudia Butz began working on a series of paintings from the vibrant window displays found in Amsterdam’s red light district (De Wallen). It seems appropriate that one of the “oldest professions” is actually in the city’s most historic neighborhoods. Since prostitution is legal in the Netherlands, working girls rent small rooms with large windows along the canals and side streets to flirt under the glow of what are literally red lights.

Claudia filmed these various windows with her Super 8mm camera. Interested in the flow and movement captured by the camera, she chooses images that play with shapes, objects and figures like puzzle pieces until the composition reveals itself, falls into place and visually holds perfectly together. By using the specific quality of the movie and translating it into the aesthetic of painting, Claudia creates hazy visions and misty views that must be investigated and discovered like recollections of a dream.

Additionally, Claudia chose to paint this provocative series in shades of blue, rather than an obvious red palette, to comment on the coldness and harshness of her subjects in their line of work.

Claudia Butz was born in Zurich, Switzerland and received her MFA from the New York Academy of Art in 2005. She first exhibited at Figureworks in 2009 through the Academy’s Alumni Association. She has had numerous national and international exhibitions, including Forbes Galleries, New York, Wiedefabrik Munich, Germany, and Galerie Wehrli, Switzerland.

MIDDLE ROOM To compliment Claudia’s series, various related twentieth century paintings and prints have been included by noted artists Erik Bergenstrahle, Anatole Cyprien, Emil Ganso, Evan Keehn, Richard Lindner, Marcia Marx, and Harry Sternberg.

Figureworks is located at 168 N. 6th St., Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211, one block from the Bedford Avenue “L” train. The gallery is open to the public Friday, Saturday, Sunday from 1-6 PM and is dedicated to exhibiting contemporary and 20th century fine art of the human form.