Viktor Butko

"Sunny Day at Dering Harbor" contemporary plein air painting of boats on a dock

2021

Viktor Butko was born in 1978 in Moscow, into a family of artists. He often visited the studio of his grandfather, the famous artist Victor Chulovich, and watched the creation of paintings. As you may imagine, this has inspired him to start painting. Viktor’s first steps in art were directed by his grandfather and his parents, artists Nickolay Butko and Marina Chulovich, he then studied at the Moscow Art School, which is known for a high level of training. After completing his training at the art school, Butko painted at the Academic Dacha of Artists, created by the great Russian artist Ilya Repin for students of the Academy of Fine Arts. There he worked under the guidance of famous artists Alexey Gritsay and Tkachev brothers, which had a big impact on his creativity. Viktor’s first solo show was held in the United States, in 2002 at the McCarthey Gallery, one of the foremost dealers in the United States for Russian Impressionist art. This marked the beginning of a long cooperation with the gallery. Later, in 2016, He took part in an international plein air event, which was organized by American painter Ben Fenske and art dealer Laura Grenning. As a result of this Russian-American Painting Alliance a large exhibition was held in the Grenning Gallery in Sag Harbor. His work is in the Vyshniy Volochek Museum collection, Collection of the IRRA and private collections in Russia, China and the U.S. Butko regularly paints in Sag Harbor and Maine as well as Russia and Italy and is represented by the Grenning Gallery, gWatson Gallery, Williams Fine Art and the McCarthey Gallery. He lives with his wife, Kelly Carmody, in Waltham Massachusetts, where they paint and teach in and around their studio. Older Russian impressionist artists, Alexei and Sergei Tkachev (they are brothers) claim Butko’s work is the ….next generation of greatness.