As Los Angeles artist Jack Butler readies himself for his next venture – a move away from Southern California which has been his artistic home for the past 40 years – he heads North and takes a long look back. The photograph that anchors the show captures it all: the view onto a timeless landscape seen from the leather back seat of a car. Is it a present day hot rod moving through a rarely uncluttered California expanse or an old photograph of a time gone by? The barren road stretches back into the distance symbolizing both where one has come and where one is going.
Looking back at the Future is poised at this junction; presenting varied work from 2003 to the present and capturing the sensibilities of an entire career. Like the landscape, it is laid out before (and behind) us. As Butler explains it, “these works are the seeds of what’s to come. I’m rolling North, looking backwards but into the future.†Looking Back elaborates on the car culture imagery that Butler initiated just prior to his 2004 COLA Grant. The car personified weaves its way through each photo as a character in its own right.
Like the family dog—ever present but never fully acknowledged, Butler’s car is the forgotten hero of daily life. Included are found and manipulated photographic series including a photo of Butler as a teen in front of his car,
which all point to (and from) this 40-year adventure of a free spirited artist, uniquely American and always down to earth. Butler has been professor of art at California State University, Los Angeles since 1988 and, while a dedicated teacher, has actively exhibited his work both nationally and internationally. His works are in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County
Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Seattle Art Museum, the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, the Graham and Susan Nash Collection, Polaroid and many others.
This is his fourth solo exhibition with Sherry Frumkin.
