Katie Butler

Lives and works in Akron, Ohio, USA

Artist statement

Working with the tradition of still-life painting, symbolism, and collage-based strategies of abstraction, Butler creates disorderly compositions addressing the imbalances that exist in American political and economic systems. This body of work, Kitchen Table Issues, challenges the superficial messaging at the center of political campaigns, illustrating the disconnect between national talking points and everyday realities. Butler looks to early examples of still-life painting from the 16th century and the compositional framework of Netherlandish artists Pieter Aertsen and Joachim Beuckelaer. Commissioned by the upper-class elite, a number of paintings by Aertsen and Beuckelaer served as both moral and social commentaries, portraying the rural and urban poor through a lens of class difference that looks down on lower social groups from the heights of privilege. These inverted still-life paintings depict everyday activities of peasants and servants in the foreground, with architectural elements of the space framing distant biblical scenes in the background. This radical shift in scale emphasizes the stark contrast between the sacred and the profane, the high and the low. In Kitchen Table Issues, Butler adopts this compositional framework to illustrate the disengagement of wealthy, privileged individuals in power with the average, working-class citizens they claim to represent. Luscious displays of food, stately décor and architecture are juxtaposed with run-of-the-mill...

Artwork