An exhibition of new sculptures by Ben Butler.

Driven by a process he refers to as “one of discovery and illumination rather than of invention”, Butler, with this new body of work, remains devoted to both the use of wood and the repetition of often-modular parts to make up a whole. His new works, totaling six in all, are autonomous objects, as opposed to his earlier installation work. As a result, this will be the first exhibition allowing more than two of Butler’s sculptures to be seen at one time.

Butler looks to architecture as a point of departure in his sculptures, evoking both ends of the architectural spectrum: the idealized, ornate edifices of temples, churches and shrines and the more rudimentary and unrefined structures, such as mud huts, log cabins, and igloos. The latter manifests itself in the form of Butler working some of the pieces with hand tools as opposed to machine, where the finish is appropriately more crude. The directness and clarity that Butler aims for in his work is ever present. Following his credo that all things, under close enough observation, will reveal the complete story of their making, Butler teaches us something about looking.

A 2003 graduate of the M.F.A. sculpture program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Butler has exhibited extensively in the Chicago area. Butler has held residencies at Art Omi in Ghent New York, MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, Dorland Mountain Arts Colony in Temecula, California, the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont, and the Ucross Foundation in Clearmont, Wyoming. Forthcoming in 2006, Butler will have a solo exhibition at the Suyama Space in Seattle.