WHITE FAN/BANJO
REEL GUITAR
Biography
Ken Butler is an
artist and musician whose hybrid musical instruments, multi-media
performances, and sound sculpture installations explore the
interaction and transformation of objects, sounds, and projected
images as function and form collide in a collage of hyper-active
hardware.
His works have been
exhibited and performed in galleries, clubs, museums, festivals,
and theatres throughout the USA, Canada, and Europe including
The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and Lincoln Center, The Whitney
Museum, and The Metropolitan Museum in New York City as well
as in South America and Japan. Other exhibition and performance
credits include The Kitchen, Thread Waxing Space, Exit Art,
The Drawing Center, Test-Site Gallery, The Performing Garage,
Roulette, The Knitting Factory, Experimental Intermedia, Generator,
The Great Hall at Cooper Union, and Franklin Furnace in NYC;
The Maryland Institute of the Arts, The Virginia Museum of Fine
Arts, The Painted Bride in Philadelphia, Portland Center for
the Performing Arts, The Portland Museum of Art, Jamison-Thomas
Gallery, Elizabeth Leach Gallery, The Art Gym, Portland Center
for the Visual Arts, and the NW Artists Workshop in Portland,
Oregon; On the Boards, Bumbershoot Festival, and Rosco Louie
Gallery in Seattle; The House, and Downtown Dance Studio in
LA; New Music America Festival 1988 in Miami, New Music America
1990, Images du Futur, and The International Cello Festival
in Montreal; The Apollohouse in Eindhoven, Holland; Printemps
de Bourges, Aix-en-Othe, St. Brieuc Art Rock, Archipel Urbain,
and the Music-Action Festival (Nancy) in France; Cave 12 Solo
Festival in Geneva, and a 6-city tour of Germany ending at Podewil
in Berlin, Germany.
Ken Butler has performed
with John Zorn, Laurie Anderson, the Butch Morris ensemble,
The Soldier String Quartet, Jon Rose, Tom Cora, Glen Moore,
Anthony Coleman, Jason Hwang, Dina Emerson, Matt Darriau's Paradox
Trio, and the Master Gnawa musicians of Morocco, and has collaborated
with dancers, artists, and filmmakers.
Ken Butler studied
viola as a child and maintained a strong interest in music while
studying visual art at universities in the US and France, completing
his MFA in painting from Portland State University in 1977.
His grants
and awards include fellowships from the Oregon Arts Commission
(83), a Multidisciplinary Project Grant from New Langston Arts
(87), an Artist Fellowship; (83) and Inter-Arts Project Grant
(89, for the creation of TWO FRUIT FLIES; a micro opera) from
the National Endowment for the Arts, and an Artist Fellowship
from the New York Foundation for the Arts (93)
He has taught curses,
workshops, and lectured at universities, schools, and cultural
centers in the USA, Canada, and France.
Works by Ken Butler
are represented in public and private collections in Portland,
Seattle, Los Angeles, New York City, Toronto, and Montreal,
Canada.
