Ken Butler

"Coat Hanger Violin" hybrid musical instrument sculpture, assemblage

2016

14"x19"x6" For Melissa Pokorny, found objects constitute the starting point for elaborate sculptures that have explored gender roles, the public and private spheres, and the nature/culture divide. More recently, her work engages the connection between “things” as potent containers of memory, capably representing loss and estrangement, and the deeply haunted landscape of the everyday. Unremarkable objects become activated and heightened as they are positioned within larger tableau. The compulsion to collect, the status of marginal objects and things, and speculative connections result in fractured narratives that address these occulted objects, the allure of magical thinking and the collapse of the boundaries between the animate and inanimate. Pokorny has been an exhibiting artist for over twenty years. Her large scale, assemblage-based sculptural works have been widely exhibited at venues across the US. Recent solo shows at Platform Gallery in Seattle and Front Room Gallery in New York augment a long career of solo exhibitions, beginning with Gallery Paule Anglim, in San Francisco and continuing with Bodybuilder and Sportsman in Chicago. Selected group exhibitions include venues such as Yerba Buena Gardens, Southern Exposure, Victoria Room, and New Langton Arts in San Francisco, Foodhouse Gallery in Los Angeles, Gallery 400, Columbia College,The James Hotel, and Devening Projects +Editions in Chicago, and The Richard Peeler...

This four panel composition has a rich blue and violet tones in the pigmented wax, which compliments the warmth of the tones of the embedded packaging material beneath the surface. ...

This contemporary ceramic wall sculpture is composed of a figure surrounded by turtles and a wolf with fire, and blue droplets woven into a geometric web, similar to a modern-day dre...

Lawn Mower Bass This sculpture designed by Ken Butler features a compilation of components including a lawnmower, many toy guns, a hockey stick and more. The body of the bass is an a...

Linda Stein, First Down 141 - Mixed Media Assemblage Contemporary Art Wall Sculpture First Down 141 is from artist Linda Stein's Brush Assemblage series, where she combines found ob...

Linda Stein, Complaisance 138 - Mixed Media Assemblage Contemporary Art Wall Sculpture Complaisance 138 is from artist Linda Stein's Brush Assemblage series, where she combines foun...

Linda Stein, One Dollar Ring 139 - Mixed Media Assemblage Contemporary Art Wall Sculpture One Dollar Ring 139 is from artist Linda Stein's Brush Assemblage series, where she combine...

Linda Stein, Pacer 142 - Mixed Media Assemblage Contemporary Art Wall Sculpture Pacer 142 is from artist Linda Stein's Brush Assemblage series, where she combines found objects, inc...