OPENING RECEPTION: LEE BUTLER Shape Shifts
- May 10, 2023
- 2 min read
May 5th - June 9th, 2023
OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, May 12th, 6pm - 8pm
GALLERY HOURS: MONDAY - FRIDAY 10 AM - 1 PM and BY APPOINTMENT
Join us as we celebrate Lee Butler’s Master Certificate graduation show this Friday, May 12th, 6pm - 8pm.
Defying clear distinctions between abstraction and representation, Butler’s work instead evolves organically, mark-by-mark, the image dancing between the recognizable and the abstract. The show includes plein air oil paintings, thoughtful interior explorations, and exciting, gestural monotype prints.
About the Artist
Lee Butler started his formal art study at the Corcoran in 1998, and took his first classes at Washington Studio School in 2005. Since his retirement from a career in nonprofit management in 2016, he has focused more intensively on his artistic practice and joined the WSS master certificate program in 2019. He has also served on the WSS Board and was its president from 2020 through 2022.
About Washington Studio School
Washington Studio School (WSS) is a nonprofit studio arts organization in Washington, DC whose mission is to teach how to see and create through drawing, painting and sculpture. We offer classes, workshops, exhibitions, and programs to engage, connect and bring people together with a fresh approach to traditional studio art. To learn more about WSS, visit washingtonstudioschool.org.
The Master Certificate Program has been a hallmark of the school’s offerings for over 20 years. As a program for students with both a strong foundation in the visual arts and a commitment to the discipline required for the life of a practicing artist, it functions as a non-degree alternative to a Masters in Fine Arts. With guidance and mentorship from faculty and independent study instructors, Master Certificate students build on the painterly tradition in which the school is rooted, developing a personal and unique visual vocabulary, grounded in direct observation, yet very much their own. The program culminates in a thesis exhibition of work. Graduates have had successful careers as gallery-affiliated artists and as instructors of drawing and painting. For additional program details, visit washingtonstudioschool.org.
For more information, or to request images, please contact WSS Communications Manager, Rachael Bohlander at communications@washingtonstudioschool.org.
WSS and this program are supported in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities
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What a captivating exhibition! Lee Butler's way of exploring shapes brings to mind the creativity found in games like Geometry Dash Subzero. Art truly transforms our perspective, doesn’t it? Thanks for sharing this event!
Transcending the familiar boundaries between abstraction and realism, Butler's works develop naturally, layer by layer, brush by brush. The slope run images in his paintings constantly shift between the familiar and the ambiguous, creating a visual space that is both intimate and mysterious.
The exhibition features a series of energetic outdoor oil paintings, deeply contemplative interior studies, and powerfully evocative monochrome prints. All geometry dash jump combine to create a visual journey where Butler explores the transformation of form, light, and emotion.
Through a dynamic range of works, Butler invites viewers to consider how shapes evolve, collide, and re-emerge, challenging our assumptions about stability and identity in visual language