Ken Butler
A violin made from a red hatchet, a guitar made with a turntable, a cello fashioned from a metal detector, and a piano constructed with Styrofoam shipping components. Ken Butler, musician, artist and instrument maker extraordinaire, will exhibit these marvels along with other eccentric instruments, drawings and collages at his exhibit Instrumental Desire: Strings Attached, opening at the Orphic Gallery on Friday, July 4th with a reception open to the public from 5 to 7 pm.
Ken Butler is an artist and musician whose Hybrid musical instruments, performances, installations, and other works explore the interaction and transformation of common and uncommon objects, altered images, sounds and silence.
His works have been featured in numerous exhibitions and performances throughout the USA, Canada, and Europe including The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Mass MoCA, and The Kitchen, The Brooklyn Museum, The Queens Museum, Lincoln Center and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City as well as in South America, Thailand, and Japan. His works have been reviewed in The New York Times, The Village Voice, Artforum, Smithsonian, and Sculpture Magazine and have been featured on PBS, CNN, MTV, and NBC, including a live appearance on The Tonight Show.
Awards include fellowships from the Oregon Arts Commission, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Pollack/Krasner Foundation. Ken Butler studied viola as a child and maintained an interest in music while studying visual arts in France, at Colorado College, and Portland State University where he completed his MFA in painting in 1977.
He has performed with John Zorn, Laurie Anderson, Butch Morris, The Soldier String Quartet, Matt Darriau's Paradox Trio, The Tonight Show Band, and The Master Gnawa musicians of Morocco. His CD, Voices of Anxious Objects is on Tzadik records.
Works by Ken Butler are represented in public and private collections in Portland, Seattle, Vail, Los Angeles, Toronto, Montreal, Washington, Paris, Tel Aviv, and New York City including the permanent collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Orphic Gallery is located at The Roxbury Corner Store located at 53525 State Highway 30 in Roxbury at the corner of Main and Bridge Streets. The exhibit will run through August 24th and be open during the gallery’s normal business hours, Thursday through Sunday 12 – 5 pm and by appointment.
For further information on Instrumental Desire: Strings Attached or the Orphic Gallery, please contact Phillip Lenihan at 607-326-6045 or phil@orphicgallery.com.
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