Tom Butler

One Hundred Misfits

05/09/2014

08/11/2014

FIFTY ONE TOO

Opening: 4th September 2014 form 6 pm until 9 pm

FIFTY ONE TOO proudly presents the first Belgian solo show “One Hundred Misfits” of Tom Butler (UK, b. 1979). In this exhibition one hundred antique portrait photographs of 19th Century Victorian cabinet cards will be shown which the young British artist, currently residing in Portland, USA, has partially overpainted in his personal miniaturist way, introducing them into the 21st Century world of contemporary art.

Read the full press release here.

Tom Butler

“I am fascinated by the process of Conspicuous Invisibility: the simultaneous human desire to both hide and perform. In a visual way, I collect memories, thresholds and hiding places and attempt to re-manufacture them. My work expresses my natural inclination towards introversion and the opposition of displaying artwork essentially about hiding. I appropriate Victorian Cabinet Cards with incorporated personal symbols such as hair, hoods and masks painted on the surface with gouache. In the process I attempt to reveal aspects of imagined inner personalities of the sitter while entirely in the knowledge that I am cloaking them with parts of myself. I use these portraits as psychological clotheshorses to create grotesque and sinister scenarios, enabling me to project thoughts, fears and anxieties in an immediate and direct way and often with a macabre sense of humor. ”

Tom Butler, 2013