ARTIST STATEMENT

My work is rooted in the concept of impermanence (noun: the state or fact of lasting for only a limited period of time). In my art I hope to shed light on this inescapable concept that everyone confronts and benefits from. From this starting point I delve into matters that I am personally invested in, intrigued by, or have experienced, either directly or indirectly. Within this narrow thematic focus, a much wider world of artistic expression opens up to me that has deep-seated personal relevance. Sometimes I express these concepts metaphorically through themes of nature or narratively through personal experiences or cognitively through integration of written words, charts, and numbers. While my work mines varied themes in search of deeper understanding of this universal idea of impermanence, I choose not to work within a specific style, medium, or genre. Instead, I focus on exploring this underlying theme through different modes of expression. I find a great deal of artistic freedom in this approach; I am able to move between different sensibilities, whether refined, expressive, distorted, accurate, conflated, or simplistic. Ideally this freedom inspires questions and emotions in viewers, regardless of the similarities or differences in their own personal life experiences and my own.

ABOUT

Roger Buttles (b. 1977, Rockville Centre NY) received his BA in Anthropology from Harvard University in 2001 and his MFA in Painting & Drawing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2014, where he was awarded The SAIC Dean Scholarship, The SAIC Rosaline Cohn Scholarship, and The SAIC Laurel Mackie Memorial Scholarship. There he worked as a teaching assistant to Candida Alvarez, Painting & Ephemera and Riva Lehrer, Figure Drawing & Anatomy. He has had solo exhibitions at The Carl and Site Red, both in Chicago; a two person exhibit with Ross Normandin at The Lens Gallery in Boston, and group exhibitions at The Condo Association in Chicago and McMillian, Wisconsin in an exhibition curated by Matthew Dale Fischer. He completed a residency at Alternative Worksite in Roanoke Virginia and currently works in Concord NH, where in 2023 he founded Outer Space, an artist-run gallery that exhibits both emerging and established artists in joint exhibitions.

For more information on Roger's curation visit:

outerspacearts.xyz or @outerspacearts.xyz