Tom Butler
“I am fascinated by the process of Conspicuous Invisibility: the simultaneous human desire to both hide and perform. In a visual way, I collect memories, thresholds and hiding places and attempt to re-manufacture them. My work expresses my natural inclination towards introversion and the opposition of displaying artwork essentially about hiding. I appropriate Victorian Cabinet Cards with incorporated personal symbols such as hair, hoods and masks painted on the surface with gouache. In the process I attempt to reveal aspects of imagined inner personalities of the sitter while entirely in the knowledge that I am cloaking them with parts of myself. I use these portraits as psychological clotheshorses to create grotesque and sinister scenarios, enabling me to project thoughts, fears and anxieties in an immediate and direct way and often with a macabre sense of humor. ”
Tom Butler, 2013
biography
Born in London, UK in 1979
Lives and works in Portland, US and London, UK
![Tom Butler - Milford, 2014](https://www.gallery51.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/MILFORD-2014.jpeg)
![Tom Butler - Lindsays, 2016](https://www.gallery51.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/LINDSAYS-2016.jpeg)
![Tom Butler - Campbell 7589, 2016](https://www.gallery51.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/CAMPBELL7589-2016.jpeg)
![Tom Butler - Burnette, 2012](https://www.gallery51.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/BURNETTE-2012.jpg)
![Tom Butler - Dunshee, 2011](https://www.gallery51.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/DUNSHEE-2011.jpg)
![Tom Butler - Set Figures 1, 2, 3, 2016](https://www.gallery51.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Set-Figures-1-2-3.jpg)
![Tom Butler - Stones 7, 8, 9, 2016](https://www.gallery51.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/SET-STONES-WHITE.jpg)