Dwayne Butcher
I Got No Use For Trouble, 2011, acrylic on canvas, 18 x 16 in.
Made For Real Women With Real Curves, 2012, acrylic and ink on canvas, 40 x 30 in.
Updates, 2010, acrylic and ink on paper, 12 x 12 in.
Updates, 2010, acrylic and ink on paper, 12 x 12 in.
Even the Goth Kids Think You’re a Poser, 2012, acrylic and ink on canvas, 48 x 36
Looking For a Sugar Daddy, 2012, acrylic & ink on canvas, 36 x 36 in.
Updates, 2010, acrylic and ink on paper, 12 x 12 in.
Updates, 2010, acrylic and ink on paper, 12 x 12 in.
Artist Statement
I have always been aware of my weight and accent and the negative connotations that come with each. When I began as a practicing artist, I wanted to deny any reference of the self in the work I was making. In these works, I intentionally denied my previous life experiences and any evidence of my personality. I felt compelled to dissociate myself, to exclude any self-reference to avoid being labeled as some overweight hillbilly from Arkansas.
In the current body of work I am completely embracing these fixed characterizations that, are for the most part, true. I actually am a hillbilly from Arkansas with aspirations of integrating into the highbrow art world. Now, I capitalize on contradictions in my pieces that counter my southern masculine roots. I use pastel pinks and baby blues and feature gay men dressing in suits. I juxtapose classical music against a make shift pool in the bed of a truck and images of me consuming beer and wings. I am attempting to construct a personality that lives between both worlds. The titles of the three-dimensional work come from lines of the performances that compartmentalize my experiences in a positive way.
The work encompasses a variety of media; sculptures, text based installations, digital paintings and videos. However, all work is based on the transcendence of stereotypes. I am embracing my struggles to integrate into the highbrow art world by examining normal conventions of gender and social class.
Artist Bio
Dwayne Butcher is Memphis’ Own. He is an artist, curator, blogger, teacher, and chicken wing connoisseur. He received his MFA from the Memphis College of Art in 2008. While at MCA, he developed a deep interest in the integration of Digital Media expression with traditional art forms. His work wittily comments on his life and citizen of the South, often around issues of masculinity. In 2010, his work was exhibited at the MMX Art Venue in Berlin, the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, with experimental video installations in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Wigan, United Kingdom. This year, his work can be seen in the exhibition “Contemporary Art and the Moving Image,” in Belfast, Northern Ireland and “Greener on the Other Side” in Chongqing, China.
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