Butch Anthony
Cabinet of Curiosities, 2014
On the Median at 11th St. & Broadway
Click here to view the Ledger Enquirer’s video of Butch Anthony displaying his work!
Sculpture Description:
Butch Anthony is a self taught artist, builder and picker of things. Using various media and techniques, Anthony alters found and natural objects, crafting them into one-of-a-kind-masterpieces. In the last 20 years he has created a specific genre of work called intertwanglelism an ism of his own creation. The artist explains: “It is how I look at people and break them down to their primordial beginnings. Almost like x-ray vision, seeing through a person’s clothes, through their skin, and muscles and veins and bones, even their shadow.”
To create Cabinet of Curiosities, Anthony purchased antique portraits and oddities from thrift stores and flea markets . These ancestral portraits, some dating back to the 1860’s to the early 1900’s that were discarded by their former owners. The sitter is muted, stiff and nameless. Anthony challenges the order of life and death as he manipulates and reworks the portraits with a skeletal bones. The superimposed text and sentences destroy the silence as Anthony’s voice is projected on to the portraits. He also added natural objects found in the woods of the Chattahoochee Valley area.
Anthony resides on his family’s 80 acre property in Seale Alabama, in his hand-built home that was featured in The New York Times. He has shown throughout the United States and Internationally. Currently Anthony is represented by Black Rat Projects in London.
Biography:
Butch Anthony is a contemporary, self-taught artist, builder and picker of things. Born in Pensacola, Florida, Anthony resides on his family’s 80 acre property in Seale, Alabama, in his hand-built home that was featured in the New York Times. In the mid 80’s, he attended Auburn University studying zoology and geology. While in college Anthony enrolled I a comparative anatomy class that he would later attribute to the use of veins and bones in his art. In the early 1990’s, Anthony started creating art using various media and techniques, crafting them into one-of-a-kind masterpieces. In the last 20 years, he has created a specific genre of work called Intertwanglelism, an ism of his own creation. The artist explains: “ It is how I look at people and break them down to their primordial beginnings. Almost like Xray vision, seeing through a person’s clothes, through their skin, and muscles and veins and bones, even their shadow.” Inter=Mix, Twang=A distinct way of speaking, Ism=A Theory.
There are 7 steps to Anthony’s Intertwanglelism Expansion:
1.Bones, 2. Skin, 3.Veins, 4. Clothes, 5. Movement, 6. Muscles, 7. Shadow
In 2002, Butch Anthony was asked by Governor Don Siegelman to create an original ornament for The White House Christmas Tree from the State of Alabama.
Anthony purchases antique portraits from thrift stores and flea markets. These ancestral portraits, some dating back to the 1860’s to the early 1900’s were discarded by their former owners. The sitter is muted, stiff and nameless. Anthony changes the order of life and death as he manipulates and reworks the portraits with skeletal bones. The superimposed text and sentences destroy the silence as Anthony’s voice is projected on the portraits.
Butch Anthony’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions in the U.S., and his paintings and sculptures can be found internationally in Canada, Holland, Germany, England, Australia and New Zealand. Anthony’s exhibitions include: 1993 through 2003, Mayor’s Office Art Gallery in Pittsview, Alabama, 1996: The Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Georgia: “In Our Own Backyard”, 1996-2003 Riverfest Art Exhibition, 1998: Chattahoochee Valley Art Museum, LaGrange, Georgia: “Substance and Spirit”, 2000-2004: Heritage Hall Museum Exhibition: “Self Taught Artist of Alabama”, 2006: Columbus State University Art Gallery, 2006: 96 Gillespie Gallery London, England: “Ice, Worms and Plate Lunch”, 2010: Jeanie Taylor Gallery Exhibition: “Straw Into Gold”, 2010: Level Eye Gallery Solo Exhibition: “Museum of Wonder”, 2011: Portland, Oregon Exhibition: “Butch Anthony, Last Minute Intertwanglelism” 2011: Jeanie Taylor Gallery Solo Exhibition: “The Bone Show”, 2013: Gallery 221 Exhibition: “Sacred Folk Art” 2013: Black Rats Project Solo Exhibition: “Intertwanglelism”, 2013: Yalo Studio and Gallery, Water Valley, Mississippi Solo Exhibition: “Anatomy Can Be Fun: New Works by Butch Anthony”, 2012 Museum of Curiosity, London, England, 2013: Memento Mori Exhibition at Pertwee, Anderson and Gold Gallery, London, England, 2013: The Garage Gallery, “Skull Show”, Amsterdam, 2013: Gonerfest 11 Art Fair, Memphis, Tennessee, 2015: “It Ain’t Dying, I’m Talking About Living” Solo Exhibition, Wrong Gallery, Marfa, Texas, 2014-2015: Akron Art Museum, Solo Exhibition: “Vita Post Mortem”
Art in the Collection of
Birmingham Art Museum
Wiregrass Museum
The Columbus Museum of Art
Akron Art Museum of Art
LaGrange Museum of Art
Grants Awarded:
Mac Arthur Grant
Alabama Arts Council
Public Art Projects:
2003 Building Project Rural Studio
2004 Fort Worth, Texas
2006 Arlington, Virginia: LED installation
2006 Barcroft Park, Arlington, Virginia
2009-2014 Design, build: Portland, Oregon