Status message

Your information has been submitted.

   Printer version

Kathy Butterly

Biography to Display: 

1963 Born Amityville, New York

EDUCATION

1986 BFA Moore College of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

1990 MFA University of California, Davis, California

APPRENTICESHIPS AND RESIDENCIES

1993 The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

BIOGRAPHY

Kathy Butterly is known for her elegantly designed and decorated small-scale porcelain sculptures. Each sculpture begins with the same cast vessel form. * The finished form is created by twisting, pinching, building, and otherwise manipulating the perfect classic vessel form to create unique pieces. The pieces are frequently glazed in a bright palette of colors accented with black and white.

During this process she, “thinks a lot about the quality of the lines,” she is creating. The resulting forms are reminiscent of the work of George Ohr. The altered forms often suggest the human body, an image she enhances by the addition of appendages.  Butterly says she thinks of the pieces as, “containers for color”. * The subtle rich surface colors are the result of the application of numerous layers of glazes and using as many as 40 firings. *

*Butterly discussing her work, 92Y Virtual Clay and NCECA: Kathy Butterly: “Looking Back and Looking Forward”, February 6, 2018.

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Public Collections to Display: 

Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona

Cantor Art Center, Stanford University, Stanford, California

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire

Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, Michigan

Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York

Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York

Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina

Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

Museum Het Kruithuis-'s Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands

Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York

Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bibliography to Display: 

Adkins, Gretchen. “The Pots of Kathy Butterly.” Ceramics Art and Perception no. 23 (1996).

Butterly, Kathy. Kathy Butterly: Between and Rock and a Soft Place. New Yorkk, NY: Tibor de Nagy Gallery, 2007.

Clark, Garth. “Rising Above the Polemic-Organic Abstraction in Contemporary Ceramics.” Ceramics Art and Perception no. 22 (1995).

Cotter, Holland. “New Sparkle for an Abstract Ensemble,” The New York Times, January 7, 2011.

Danto, Arthur C. and Janet Koplos, Choice from America: Modern American Ceramics. The Netherlands: Museum Het Kruithuis, 's Hertogenbosch, 1999.

Levin, Elaine. “Kathy Butterly: Lots of Little Love Affairs.” Ceramics Monthly (May 2013).

Ollman, Leah. “Exhibition Reviews: Kathy Butterly.” Art in America (March 2013).

Porter, Jenelle and Jeremy Sigler. Figuring Color: Kathy Butterly, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Roy McMakin, Sue Williams. Boston, MA: Institute of Contemporary Art, 2012.

Smith, Roberta. “Crucible of Creativity, Stoking Earth into Art.” The New York Times, March 20, 2009.

Sutton, Benjamin. “Playful Ceramicist Kathy Butterly Wins Smithsonian’s 2013 Contemporary Art Prize.” Artinfo, November 2012.

Yau, John. “Kathy Butterly: Pantyhose and Morandi,” The Brooklyn Rail, June 2010.

 

CV or RESUME: Click Here to Download
Source: Tibor de Nagy Gallery

CV or RESUME: Click Here to Download
Source: Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Elaine Levin Archive, University of Southern California

 

Typical Marks
1996-1997
1997
Call Me Mary
Date: 1993
Form: Vase
Materials: Porcelain
Method: Hand-Built, Cast
Dimensions: 7"
Surface Technique: Glaze
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Daphne Farago Collection, 2012.1178
Photo: TMP
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Daphne Farago Collection, 2012.1178
Hoola
Date: 1995
Form: Vase
Materials: Porcelain
Method: Hand-Built, Cast
Dimensions: 5.9"
Surface Technique: Gilding, Glaze
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Daphne Farago Collection, 2012.463
Photo: TMP
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Daphne Farago Collection, 2012.463
Soft
Date: 1995
Form: Vase
Materials: Porcelain
Method: Hand-Built, Cast
Dimensions: 6.5"
Surface Technique: Glaze
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Daphne Farago Collection, 2012.1179
Photo: TMP
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Daphne Farago Collection, 2012.1179
Red Shimmy
Date: 1997
Form: Vase
Materials: Porcelain
Method: Hand-Built, Cast
Surface Technique: Glaze
Judith and Martin Schwartz Collection
Photo: John Polak
Judith and Martin Schwartz Collection
Buttercup
Date: 1996-1997
Form: Sculpture
Materials: Porcelain
Method: Hand-Built, Cast
Surface Technique: Glaze
Courtesy Treadway Toomey Auctions, Candice Groot Collection,  April 16, 2016, Lot # 1,
Courtesy Treadway Toomey Auctions, Candice Groot Collection, April 16, 2016, Lot # 1,
Photo: TMP
Photo: TMP

Citation: "The Marks Project." Last modified February 15, 2024. http://www.themarksproject.org/marks/butterly