Angloa-American June 2022

Bev Butkow

embodied-entanglements/entangled-embodiments 2020 Site-specific installation Bag Factory Artist Studios, Newtown, Johannesburg All images © Bev Butkow. Photos: Anthea Pokroy, Thekiso Mokhele

Proposal to Anglo American Artworks available for sale June 2022

Installation shot – constrained-unconstrained 2021 Origin Centre Museum, Wits University

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constrained-unconstrained 2021 Oil paint, encaustic wax, ink, silver leaf, bronze leaf, glitter on Belgian linen 220 x 300 cm Unframed Selling price (excl VAT) USD 5 300

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Detail – constrained-unconstrained

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and in the dying moments of her academic constraint 2021 Oil paint, encaustic wax, ink, silver leaf, bronze leaf, glitter on Belgian linen 220 x 300 cm Unframed Selling price (excl VAT) USD 5 300

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Installation shot – and in the dying moments of her academic constraint Origin Centre Museum, Wits University 9

Shadow series

Entanglement II 2019 Weave with beads and string on canvas 50 × 50 × 4 cm Selling price (excl VAT) USD 2 400

Untitled XIII (Traces of Labour series) Silkscreen Monotype 2019 Series printed with master printer Cloudia Hartwig at Chocolate Ink Studios 100 x 70 cm Framed Selling price (excl VAT) USD 1200

Traces of Labour series Silkscreen Monotype 2019 Series printed with master printer Cloudia Hartwig at Chocolate Ink Studios 100 x 70 cm Framed Selling price (excl VAT) USD 1200

Artist statement Bev Butkow’s deeply material process entangles layered moments of interconnection between the material, personal, and social. She immerses in material intensities and vibrational aliveness through physical and bodily materials that never settle into solid form. Heavily-laden-laboured surfaces grow into multi-layered sculptural masses from the time and energy invested in them. These are liberated into the world flows.

Through the small habitual gestures of her body, she weaves together thousands of tiny beads and mundane everyday materials, often textile or domestic related. Traces of rhythm, enforced constraint and the intensity of gendered work are imprinted in these woven constellations. Her process involves making-unmaking-learning-unlearning-arranging-rearranging.

Butkow weaves in an ever-expanding and fluid interpretation of what it means to ‘paint’, de-disciplining her paintings. Processes of unravelling order are followed by attempts to make sense of disorder.

Through this tension between organisation and chaos, Butkow attempts to pin down something mercurial, making space for the fragile and ephemeral. Her porous unresolved forms dissolve into the background and then reassert themselves. Space is unsettled.

Biography Bev Butkow (b. Johannesburg 1967) started making art in her mid-40s and is now a full-time artist grounded in the seriousness of her responsibility as a maker, communicator and social actor.

Passionate about life-long learning, she is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts at Wits University, Johannesburg on a scholarship from Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. To this challenge she brings a diversity of perspectives from her varied life experiences, like corporate and artistic careers, community involvement, academia and role as a mother and wife. Deeply committed to social engagement and education, she co-founded a library in rural Limpopo and works actively on the board and management committee of 11 schools.

Butkow has exhibited at the 2022 Dakar Biennale, 1-54 London, Cape Town & Joburg Art Fairs and Wits Art Museum. Curated exhibitions include Tactile Visions-Woven at Turbine Art Fair, and The Art of Lithography: a collaborative expression of LL Editions at Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg. She is represented by Guns & Rain and her work is housed in local and international collections.

Her creative home is the Bag Factory Artist Studios. Inspired by the only city in which she’s lived, Butkow lives with her husband and four children in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Curriculum Vitae Selected Biennials/Triennals 2022 14th Dak’Art Biennial, titled 'Ndaffa / Forging / Out of the Fire, Senegal 2021 Every Woman Biennial, London 2021 Interwoven Worlds, ACASA Triennial, Online 2020 IX Bienal World Textile Art- Chile, Online Solo exhibition 2021 embodied-entanglements/entangled-embodiments, MFA show, Centre Museum, Wits University 2015 m/other, Lizamore & Associates, Johannesburg

Dakar,

Origins

Selected group exhibitions and art fairs 2022 Rich in Fibre, curated by Dineke van der Walt, KKNK, National Arts Festival, Oudtshoorn 2022 Tomorrows/Today, curated by Nkule Mabaso and Luigi Fassi, Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2021 Bag Factory 30 Years: So Far, The Future, FADA Gallery, University of Johannesburg 2020 Darkest Before Dawn: Art in a Time of Uncertainty, Ethan Cohen KuBe, New York 2020 Tactile Visions–Woven, Curater Prof Sharlene Kahn, Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg 2018 The Art of Lithography: a collaborative expression of LL Editions, Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg 2018 Sister Sister, National Arts Festival, Makhanda 2016 Thami Mnyele Fine Arts Awards Top 100 exhibition, Kempton Park District Six 50th Commemorative Print Exchange Portfolio Project, District Six Museum, Cape Town

Awards, grants & selections 2021 BodyIQ2021 Symposium, Berlin 2021 Finalist, Nature/Nurture Competition, Brooklyn, USA 2021 Wits School of Art RINC recipient 2020 Grant Recipient, Art: An Essential Need, artandaboutafrica 2019 Scholarship Andrew W Mellon: Governing Intimacies (GI) Project 2019 African Studies Journal writing retreat 2018 Africa’s top 20 new and exciting talent, Joburg Art Fair 2016 Johannesburg Council Chamber Totem Public Art Competition 2016 Post-Its, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, Supported by Sokol Foundation, Hayman Foundation, University of California at San Diego, Los Angeles and Davis 2015 Merit Award, SA Taxi Foundation Art Award 2015 Fresh Produce, Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg 2015 Winner, Assemblage Postcard Project competition Residencies 2020 Nirox Sculpture Park, Cradle of Mankind, South Africa 2019 L’Air Paris Publications 2020 [...] Ellipses Journal for Creative Research. 2020 Special edition Methodologies, Creative Research in the Global South”

“Embodied

Gallery representation Guns & Rain

Art Fairs include 1-54, London, Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Latitudes Art Fair, Joburg Art Fair, AKAA Art Fair, Paris. Group exhibitions at a variety of project spaces, including Point of Order, Nirox Project Space, P72 Project Space, Bag Factory, National Arts Festival, District Six Museum.

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Curriculum Vitae - cont Formal education 2018–2022 Candidate Master of Fine Arts, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, under supervisor Dr Jessica Webster 2016–2017 Honours cum laude in Art History, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 1985–1991 B.Com, B.Acc, CA(SA), H.Dip.Tax, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

Informal education 2020 Drawing meditation with Katherine Bull 2019 Narrative Writing under Dr Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon 2019 Research trip, TextileLab, Tillburg, Netherlands Ongoing Mentorships with: Nina Barnett, MAFA, University of Illinois, Chicago Usha Seejarim, MAFA, Wits University, Johannesburg Kim Lieberman, MAFA, Wits University, Johannesburg 2018 Paper making at Phumani Paper Archive Mill, University of

Contact details bevbutkow@gmail.com +27-83-378-1981 Bag Factory Artist Studios 10 Mahlatini Street Fordsburg Johannesburg, 2092 Instragram bevbutkow

Johannesburg

Conference presentations 2021 Organising committee – Virtual Hugs 2021: Creating from precarious edges, Wits University 2019 Material Narratives: Representations of public and private histories in cloth conference, University of Johannesburg 2019 Wits School of Arts Postgraduate Research Showcase, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2018 Tobetsa: a huddling, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2016 South African Research Chair in Southern African Art and Visual Culture conference 2016 WiCDS Decolonising Feminism 2016 UNISA School of Arts conference

Selected community involvement Ongoing Established and ongoing support for a children’s library in Ponelopele in Botlokwa, Limpopo 2015–2021 Board, Management Committee member for 11 schools in Johannesburg 2015–2021 Chair, IT Steering Committee for 11 schools in Johannesburg 2020 Artmask for Kindness project 2018–2019 Bag Factory Project Selection Committee 2018 Mentor - David Koloane Painting Award winners 2018 Collaboration - Save the Children South Africa

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