The Athens Area Council for the Arts is pleased to present “Bain Butcher: Paintings”, on exhibit from  January 18 – February 24, 2012, at The Arts Center, 320 North White Street, Athens, Tennessee. 

 Bain Butcher is a conceptual figurative artist who exhibits nationally and maintains a studio in Knoxville, TN.  He received his MFA in painting from the New York Academy of Art in 2006 where he studied with leading contemporary figurative painters.  Prior to his time in New York, he studied at Davidson College, the Pacific Northwest College of Art, and the University of Cincinnati where he received an MD degree.  Bain’s work has been included in publications such as Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine, the International Drawing Annual 6, and the International Painting Annual 2.  He has also won numerous awards and was recently named a semi-finalist in the 2009 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.  For more information about Bain’s work visit  www.bainbutcher.com, or email the artist at bainbutcher@mac.com.

The series of paintings in this exhibit depict figures immersed in expansive environments of unnatural cadmium lemon yellow.  The figures metaphorically contend both with the antagonistic opticality and the chemical toxicity of this background pigment.  Stripped of narrative cues, the environments are designed to heighten contrasts between the vitality and humanity of the subject and the deadness or banality of their circumstance.  Creation of the work required the construction of a yellow studio enclosure where selected models could work within a space analogous to the fictional space of the canvas. 

The public is invited to meet the artist at an opening reception at The Arts Center on Friday, January 20, 2012 from 5:30 – 7:00 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.