Name/Title
Semiotics Aside (Landscape 020)Entry/Object ID
2016.02.01Description
Paul Butler (b.1973, Winnipeg) is a Canadian multidisciplinary artist. His projects are based on community, relational aesthetics, social aesthetics and alternative ways of learning. Butler is known for his project The Collage Party (est.1997) – a travelling participatory studio based on the artist’s own experience with education that invites the public to develop their own artworks– and The Other Gallery (2001-2011) – a nomadic commercial gallery with a focus on overlooked artists.
Butler's formal artworks play with his exploration of the flexibility of visual images and language. Meanings and contexts as well as signs and symbols become flipped and skewed as aesthetics take precedence in the artwork.
In Semiotics Aside (2016), Butler produces collages from old publications clipped and used during his "parties". In changing the form and composition of images, he facilitates the creation of new symbols that displays an intimate visual language based on individual feeling and taste. There is no consistency of style, technique, or meaning between pieces. Instead, they are pure aesthetics made from photos that have been stripped of their contexts.
Butler has served as the Curator of Contemporary Art at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the director of 2/edition in Toronto. He has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; White Columns, New York; Creative Growth Art Centre, Oakland; Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong; and La Maison Rouge, Paris. Butler's work is held in several private and public collections including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Bank of Montreal, the Royal Bank of Canada, Scotia Bank, and TD Canada Trust.
https://www.pbca.ca/