Jessica Silverman
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Luke Butler: Overture
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Luke Butler: Overture

Luke Butler: Overture

September 16-October 29, 2022

Jessica Silverman is pleased to announce “Overture,” the fourth solo exhibition at the gallery by San Francisco-based artist, Luke Butler, opening September 16 and on view through October 29, 2022. In his newest works, Butler probes his long-held affinity for 20th century film and television through a series of exquisitely detailed acrylic paintings of San Francisco cityscapes and shorelines, all made between 2019 and 2022.

INSTALLATION VIEW
SELECTED WORKS
ARTIST BIO
OTHER EXHIBITIONS

INSTALLATION VIEW

Installation View Installation View Installation View Installation View Installation View

SELECTED WORKS

Luke Butler
Location IV, 2020
Acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas
38 x 54 inches / 96.5 x 137.2 cm
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Luke Butler, "Location IV"
Luke Butler
Overture II, 2022
Acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas
22 x 24 inches / 55.9 x 61 cm
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Luke Butler, "Overture II"
Luke Butler
A Color Picture V, 2022
Acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas
32 x 42 inches / 81.3 x 106.7 cm
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Luke Butler, "In Color V"
Luke Butler
Location IV, 2020
Acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas
38 x 54 inches / 96.5 x 137.2 cm
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Luke Butler, "Location IV"
Luke Butler
Overture II, 2022
Acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas
22 x 24 inches / 55.9 x 61 cm
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Luke Butler, "Overture II"
Luke Butler
A Color Picture V, 2022
Acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas
32 x 42 inches / 81.3 x 106.7 cm
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Luke Butler, "In Color V"
These new works are the result of an intensive, frequently monthslong process by the artist involving original research, photography, and documentation that he combines and collages with film or television stills. In what Butler refers to as “plastic realism,” the process plays with truth and fiction, exploring the boundary between reality and picture. Like Hockney’s considerations of realism and illusion, Butler’s paintings sample from direct experiences as well as what is imagined, drawn up, or staged. They reflect the self-narratives we create to understand the world and our place within it. "Overture" takes pop culture’s film, television, and media as its center of gravity and brilliantly destabilizes a singular account of what is virtual, actual or neither.
Luke Butler
A Color Picture III, 2021
Acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas
32 x 42 inches / 81.3 x 106.7 cm
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Luke Butler, "A Color Picture III"
Luke Butler
Scene IV, 2021
Acrylic on canvas
40 x 54 inches / 101.6 x 137.2 cm
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Luke Butler, "Scene IV"
Luke Butler
A Color Picture VI, 2022
Acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas
20 x 24 inches / 50.8 x 61 cm
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Luke Butler, "A Color Picture VI"
Luke Butler
A Color Picture III, 2021
Acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas
32 x 42 inches / 81.3 x 106.7 cm
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Luke Butler, "A Color Picture III"
Luke Butler
Scene IV, 2021
Acrylic on canvas
40 x 54 inches / 101.6 x 137.2 cm
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Luke Butler, "Scene IV"
Luke Butler
A Color Picture VI, 2022
Acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas
20 x 24 inches / 50.8 x 61 cm
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Luke Butler, "A Color Picture VI"
With distinctive chromatic tones and cinematic framing, Butler creates moments of suspense and anticipation—a marked departure from earlier works that focused on endings. Indeed, the exhibition title alludes to this shift, borrowing from the text in two paintings wherein, “Overture,” rendered in the artist’s signature bold serif, overlays his realist imagery of condensing clouds and crashing waves.
Luke Butler
Wrong Man, 2021
Acrylic on canvas
30 x 36 inches / 76.2 x 91.4 cm
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Luke Butler, "Wrong Man"
Luke Butler
Number Nine, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
32 x 32 inches / 81.3 x 81.3 cm
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Luke Butler, "Number Nine"
Location V (2020) and In Color V (2021) take birds-eye-views of San Francisco’s iconic architecture. Framed as if the viewer is looking from a top-floor window to the streets and buildings below, the paintings recall film scenes like those in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 Vertigo . Depicted in color—the city’s recognizable creamy taupes and cool grays—these works, along with the vibrantly painted A Color Picture III and IV (2021 and 2022) speak to Butler’s fascination with the emergence of color television in the mid-20th century.
Luke Butler
“The Artist”, 2019
Acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas
24 x 30 inches / 61 x 76.2 cm
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Luke Butler, "'The Artist'"
Luke Butler
Skylark, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 30 inches / 61 x 76.2 cm
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Luke Butler, "Skylark"
Luke Butler
Location III, 2020
Acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas
28 x 35 inches / 71.1 x 88.9 cm
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Luke Butler, "Location III"
Luke Butler
“The Artist”, 2019
Acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas
24 x 30 inches / 61 x 76.2 cm
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Luke Butler, "'The Artist'"
Luke Butler
Skylark, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 30 inches / 61 x 76.2 cm
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Luke Butler, "Skylark"
Luke Butler
Location III, 2020
Acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas
28 x 35 inches / 71.1 x 88.9 cm
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Luke Butler, "Location III"
Silvery black-and-white cityscapes cast the artist as the protagonist. The Artist (2019) shows a dead-end street juxtaposed with text reading “Luke Butler in The Artist,” as if taken from the opening of a film noir. Cameo appearances by the artist and his peers come forth in the works, Skylark (2022), riffing on the 1967 Steve McQueen film Bullitt and its famous car chase sequence, as well as Location III (2020), in which the artist crosses a rainy street alongside a dump truck in San Francisco.
Luke Butler
Artists: Elisheva Biernoff, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 30 inches / 61 x 76.2 cm
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Luke Butler, "Artists: Elisheva Biernoff"
Luke Butler
Artists: Luke Butler, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 30 inches / 61 x 76.2 cm
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Luke Butler, "Artists: Luke Butler"

ARTIST BIO

Luke Butler (b.1971) has an MFA from California College of the Arts and a BFA from the Cooper Union. His work is in the permanent collections of the Berkeley Art Museum; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, AK; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; and Norton Museum of Art, Miami. His work has been included in group exhibitions at the Berkeley Art Museum, The FLAG Foundation Art Foundation, NY; Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco; Orange County Museum of Art, CA; Crystal Bridges Museum; and the ICA Boston, among others. Butler lives and works in San Francisco.

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