Kyle Butler

Kyle Butler is part of the Living Legacy Project at the Burchfield Penney Art Center. Click here to listen to his artist interview. 

Kyle Butler is an artist who works in painting, video and audio and lives in Buffalo, New York. Butler was born and raised in rural Michigan. After completing his BFA at Central Michigan University in 2008, he moved to Buffalo where he earned his MFA in Visual Studies at the University at Buffalo.

In 2008, Kyle Butler worked as an Instructor of Record at the University of Buffalo. In 2010, he became a Sol Lewitt Apprentice for wall drawing #1268 at the Albright Knox Art Gallery, along with his work as an instructor at the Burchfield Penney Art Center. In 2012, Butler performed in a John Bock performance at the Albright Knox Art Gallery. In 2013, Butler worked as an instructor at Squeaky Wheel Productions. He also worked as an Adjunct Instructor at the University at Buffalo, and as a mural painter contracted under Augustina Droze. In 2014, Butler began his work as an Adjunct Professor in Art at Villa Maria College, which he continues to this day. In 2015, he worked as an instructor at the Buffalo Center for Arts and Technology. That year, he also assisted in the fabrication of Sol LeWitts Wall Drawing #53 for the exhibition Looking at Tomorrow at the Albright Knox Art Gallery. That same year, he assisted in the fabrication of Kaarina Kaikkonen’sWe Share a Dream at the Albright Knox. Kyle Butler also worked as the co-curator for Amin/In Western New York series at Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center. He continued his work at Hallwalls until 2017. He also worked as the curator at Starlight Studio and Gallery in 2015, and also worked as an instructor for New York State Summer School for the Arts in the School of Media Arts. He continues to curate at Starlight Studio and Gallery and instruct at the School of Media Arts to this day [1].

Kyle Butler has also garnered attention at the national level, where works of his have been shown in Detroit and Corpus Christi, Texas. He has also been featured in publications such as the University of Pittsburgh’s Hot Metal Bridge, and All Things Considered on CMU Public Radio. Much of Butler’s current work fits into a prevalent theme in American art today, that of decay and vanishing urbanity. Architecture plays a big role in his images and it is easy to see that he is very influenced by his surroundings. Butler uses the structure and language of architecture to tell the story of a neighborhood, street or expose a feeling. 

[1] http://kylewilliambutler.com/info.html