Biography
| EDUCATION | ||
| 2005-2007 | MFA Sculpture | Slade School of Fine Art, London |
| 2002-2005 | BA (Hons) Fine Art | Chelsea College of Art, London |
| 1997-2000 | BA (Hons) History of Art and Design | Southampton University, Southampton |
| ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS | ||
| 2019 | Pencils of Nature Fox Talbot Museum | Lacock Abbey, Chippenham |
| 2019 | Ensemble | The Eye Sees, Arles |
| 2018 | Ensemble | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2017 | Divided Self | Print Sales Gallery, The Photographers' Gallery, London |
| 2016 | The Hidden | Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit |
| 2015 | Inhabitants | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2014 | One Hundred Misfits | FIFTY ONE TOO, Antwerp |
| 2014 | Inner Worlds | Aucosisco Galleries, Portland |
| 2013 | Absentees | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2012 | Curio | Charlie Dutton Gallery, London |
| 2011 | Aedas Presents: Tom Butler | Aedas Architects, Birmingham |
| 2011 | The Grotesques | Susan Maasch Fine Art, Portland |
| 2010 | Hair Creatures | Susan Maasch Fine Art, Portland |
| 2010 | “I don’t know when I’ll be home…” | Exeter Phoenix, Devon |
| 2009 | Corespondence | Madame Lillies, London |
| SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS | ||
| 2019 | 10 Years | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2018 | Flux | Corey Daniels Gallery, Wells |
| 2018 | Quirk | Kathryn Markell Gallery, New York |
| 2018 | Photo A Go-Go | Bakery Photo Collective, Portland |
| 2018 | RCA Secret | Royal College of Art, London |
| 2018 | FaceValue2 | Jealous East, London |
| 2018 | Context: Gallery Artists and Collaborators | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2017 | Black Mirror: Magic in Art | The Gallery at AUB, Bournemouth |
| 2017 | Mirror Mirror | Foley Gallery, New York |
| 2017 | In Memoriam - Francesca Lowe | Old Truman Brewery, London |
| 2017 | Unseen Amsterdam | The Photographers' Gallery, Amsterdam |
| 2017 | Art of the Postcard | Handel Street Projects, London |
| 2017 | ANALOG V. DIGITAL | Foley Gallery, New York |
| 2017 | Par VoiX Postale | Museé de la Photographie, Charleroi |
| 2017 | The Collective | The House of St Barnabas, London |
| 2017 | Seventeen | GALLERY FIFTY ONE, Antwerp |
| 2016 | Paper Works II | Galerie Martin Mertens, Berlin |
| 2015 | Pairings: Selections from Bruce Brown's Photography Collection | CMCA and Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland |
| 2015 | Show #28: Impossible Geometries (curated by Lauren Haynes) | Field Projects (New York) |
| 2015 | WISH YOU WERE HERE? Artists' postcards from Jeremy Cooper's Collection | Hestercombe Gallery, Taunton |
| 2015 | Das Unheimliche | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2015 | Art to Collect Now | CMCA, Rockport |
| 2015 | THE WALL, Kit and Ace | The Space Shoreditch, London |
| 2015 | Metamorphosis | Queen Street Studios, Belfast |
| 2015 | The Pistil's Waltz | GALLERY FIFTY ONE, Antwerp |
| 2015 | WISH YOU WERE HERE? Artists' postcards from Jeremy Cooper's Collection | MAC Birmingham, Birmingham |
| 2015 | RCA Secret | Royal College of Art, London |
| 2015 | Die English Kommen! New Painting from London (curated by Zavier Ellis) | Galerie Heike Strelow, Frankfurt |
| 2014 | Idolatry | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2014 | Re-unpacking (curated by Andrew Bracey) | Nottingham Castle, Nottingham |
| 2014 | Saatchi’s New Sensations and THE FUTURE CAN WAIT (curated by Zavier Ellis, Simon Rumley & Rebecca Wilson) | B1, Victoria House, London |
| 2014 | SCRATCH IT, STITCH IT, CUT IT, KEEP IT | Fotogalleriet, Oslo |
| 2014 | Unseen Photo | Castell Photography, Asheville |
| 2014 | Merge | Castell Photography, Asheville |
| 2014 | WISH YOU WERE HERE? | The Granary Gallery, Berwick Upon Tweed, MAC, Birmingham, The Atkinson, Southport |
| 2014 | Summer Salon 2014 | Aucosisco Galleries, Portland |
| 2014 | Regeneration | The Photographers' Gallery, London |
| 2013 | Saatchi Gallery & Channel 4’s New Sensations and THE FUTURE CAN WAIT (curated by Zavier Ellis, Simon Rumley & Rebecca Wilson) | B1, Victoria House, London |
| 2013 | Nervous Energy, Tom Butler & Kate Russo | Engine, Biddeford, Maine |
| 2013 | The Masks We Wear | ArtEco Gallery, London |
| 2013 | VOX IX | Vox Populi, Philadelphia |
| 2013 | Photo & Print Open | Charlie Dutton Gallery, London |
| 2013 | Zeitgeist Open | ZeitgeistArtsProjects, London |
| 2013 | Discernible | ZeitgeistArtsProjects, London |
| 2012 | Saatchi Gallery & Channel 4’s New Sensations and THE FUTURE CAN WAIT (curated by Zavier Ellis, Simon Rumley & Rebecca Wilson) | B1, Victoria House, London |
| 2012 | La Petite Muerte | Drawers Gallery, London |
| 2012 | Zeitgeist Open | ZeitgeistArtsProjects, London |
| 2012 | CMCA Biennial | Centre for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, Maine |
| 2012 | Anthology | CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, London |
| 2012 | Art to Collect Now: 35th Annual Benefit Auction Exhibition | Centre for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, Maine |
| 2012 | Student & Teacher Art Show | Centre for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, Maine |
| 2012 | ZAP Launch Exhibition: Collectible | ZeitgeistArtsProjects, London |
| 2011 | ArtWorks Open 2011, Barbican Arts Group Trust | Blackhorse Lane Studios, London |
| 2011 | New Now Next | Susan Maasch Fine Art, Portland |
| 2011 | Photomedia | Charlie Dutton Gallery, London |
| 2011 | Extra-Ordinary: Marion Michell, Tom Butler and Alyson Helyer | Core Gallery, London |
| 2011 | Postcards from Paris | Minnie Weisz Studio, London |
| 2011 | Postcards from Paris | Trove Gallery, Birmingham |
| 2010 | Small Works | Susan Maasch Fine Art, Portland |
| 2010 | ArtSway Open | ArtSway, Hampshire |
| 2010 | Deptford X Core Gallery Open | Core Gallery, London |
| 2010 | I am Solitary I am an Army, with Beers Lambert | Surface Gallery, Nottingham |
| 2010 | Ludlow Summer Exhibition | Ludlow, Shropshire |
| 2010 | ArtWorks Open 2010 | Barbican Arts Group Trust, London |
| 2010 | Citizen | tactileBOSCH Gallery and Studios, Cardiff |
| 2010 | Worcester Open 2010 | Worcester Art Gallery, Worcester |
| 2010 | What Does Kiwi Mean to You? | RM Gallery, New Zealand |
| 2010 | Things Have Changed | Birdwood House Gallery, Devon |
| 2010 | Tom Butler and Kate Russo | The Flavel Arts Centre, Devon |
| 2009 | 10 Artists | The Old School House, Shropshire |
| 2009 | CUBE09 | Centre for the Urban Built Environment, Manchester |
| 2009 | RWA Open 2009 | Bristol |
| 2009 | Salisbury Open 2009 | Salisbury Art Centre, Salisbury |
| 2009 | Bright Newcomers | Bowie Gallery, Totnes |
| 2009 | Drawn In, Open Drawing Competition | Sidcot Arts Centre, Somerset |
| 2009 | Ludlow Summer Exhibition 2009 | Ludlow, Shropshire |
| 2008 | The Waiting Room | Crouch End Train Station, London |
| 2008 | Salon 08 | Vine Space, London |
| 2008 | workFORCE | John Jones Project Space, London |
| 2008 | Alpha | Lewisham Art House, London |
| 2007 | Subrealism | Aftermodern, San Francisco |
| 2006 | Scene One, in the Offing | Sassoon Gallery, London |
| 2006 | Sterling, New London Artists | Factory Gallery, Berlin |
| 2004 | Art Car-boot Fair | The Old Truman Brewery, London |
| 2003 | ‘Circus’; Peter Blake Sculpture | London Institute Gallery, London |
| 2003 | Happy Days | La Caserne, Pontoise |
| 2002 | Things Which May Appear | Empire Studios, London |
| AWARDS & RESIDENCIES | ||
| 2013 | Elsewhere Collective, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA | |
| 2011 | Photomedia, Charlie Dutton Gallery, London, UK (Winner) | |
| 2010 | Deptford X Core Gallery Open, Core Gallery, London, UK (Prize Winner) | |
| 2010 | Worcester Open 2010, Worcester Art Gallery and Museum, Worcester, UK (Selected Artist) | |
| BIBLIOGRAPHY | ||
| 2018 | Issue No. 6 | MysteryTribune |
| 2018 | Issue 9 | ArtMaze Magazine, selected by Kim Savage |
| 2018 | Tom Butler's Self Portrait Series | iGNANT |
| 2018 | Photo of the Day | Don't Take Pictures Magazine |
| 2017 | Feature Spotlight: Cabinet Cards | Photo-Emphasis |
| 2017 | Conspicuous Invisibility: An Interview with Tom Butler, with Alexandra Olczak | The Photographers Gallery |
| 2016 | A History of the Hidden | OMAA, ME, USA |
| 2015 | Altered States, interview with Zavier Ellis | F22/STATE Magazine |
| 2015 | Inhabitants, Séances, And Concealment | Artlyst, by Paul Black |
| 2015 | Self Portraits | GUP magazine |
| 2015 | Black Mirror: Magic Mirror | Willem de Bruin, Exhibition Catalogue, The Gallery at Arts University Bournemouth |
| 2015 | Beg Steal & Borrow: Artists Against Originality | Robert Shore, Laurence King Publishing |
| 2015 | Cabinet Cards | Lens Culture |
| 2015 | Embodiment | Black Mirror 1 |
| 2015 | Inhabitants: Tom Butler at Charlie Smith London | Phoebe Bradford |
| 2015 | Inhabitants: 'Appropriations And Ectoplasmic Abstractions' | Artlyst, by Paul Black |
| 2015 | Inhabitants | Amelia's Magazine, by Amelia Gregory |
| 2015 | Tom Butler: Defacing the Victorians | Elephant #21 |
| 2015 | Regeneration | Financial Times, by Jackie Wullschlager |
| 2015 | Tom Butler Brings New Life to Old Photographs | The Wild Magazine, by Michael Valinsky |
| 2015 | What Has to be Seen at Unseen Amsterdam | Artdependence |
| 2015 | Object of Desire | AnOther Magazine |
| 2015 | The Altered Cabinet Card | Robert E Jackson |
| 2014 | Unseen Photo Fair | September 2014, Volkskrant Magazine, |
| 2013 | New American Paintings | No.110, Northeast Issue |
| 2013 | Appropriation | Issue 13, SuperMassiveBlackHole |
| 2012 | Divergent Visions, Complementary Skills | Bangor Daily News |
| 2012 | Art to Collect Now, text by Deborah Weisgall, 35 th Annual Benefit Auction Exhibition, CMCA Rockport ME, USA | Exhibition Catalgoue |
| 2012 | Review of Curio at Charlie Dutton Gallery | Broughtonbirnie.co.uk.blog |
| 2012 | Interventions by Richard Russo and Artwork by Kate Russo | Down East Books |
| 2012 | MIXED use, The Canvas, by Britta Konau | Maine Home and Design |
| 2011 | Photomedia, Charlie Dutton Gallery, London | Exhibition Catalgoue |
| 2011 | Extra-Ordinary, Review by Chris Osburn | WHITEHOT Magazine |
| 2011 | Sonant Ensemble / The Gavin Bryars Ensemble / Testbed 1 | Vimeo |
| 2010 | Tom Butler And The Case of the Misplaced Hair | Llamarinth, Wordpress |
| 2010 | Marmite Painting Prize 2010 | Exhibition Catalogue |
| 2010 | I Am Solitary I Am An Army | Exhibition Catalogue |
| 2010 | Ludlow Summer Exhibition | Exhibition Catalogue |
| 2010 | The Lost Souls of Soho, Poster Design | Intervention Gallery, London |
| 2010 | Worcester Open 2010 | Exhibition Catalogue |
| 2010 | Love Bites (May) Poster Design | Calder Bookshop, London |
| 2010 | ZeroStretch March Artist | |
| COLLECTIONS | ||
| Bruce Brown, United States | ||
| Jon Edwards, United States | ||
| Ogunquit Museum of American Art, United States | ||
| Quintessentially, United Kingdom | ||
| Soho House, United Kingdom | ||
| Steve Shane, United States | ||
| The Caldic Collection, Netherlands | ||
| The SØR Rusche Collection, Germany | ||
| University of Maine, Museum of Art, United States | ||
| Private collections in France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, United Kingdom & United States | ||
Press Release | 10 Years | 2019
| 10 Years |
| Dale Adcock, Emma Bennett, Kiera Bennett, Sara Berman, Jelena Bulajić, Tom Butler, Paul Chiappe, Adam Dix, Susannah Douglas, Tessa Farmer, Tom Gallant, Florian Heinke, Sam Jackson, Simon Keenleyside, Thomas Langley, Wendy Mayer, Hugh Mendes, Sean Molloy, Alex Gene Morrison, Tamsin Morse, Gavin Nolan, Dominic Shepherd, Carolein Smit, Barry Thompson, Gavin Tremlett |
| PRIVATE VIEW: Thursday 11 July 6.30-8.30pm |
| EXHIBITION DATES: Friday 12 July – Saturday 10 August 2019 |
| GALLERY HOURS: Wednesday-Saturday 11am-6pm or by appointment |
| CHARLIE SMITH LONDON is delighted to announce ’10 Years’, our anniversary exhibition produced to celebrate a full decade’s operations in Shoreditch. During this time we have presented 88 exhibitions within the gallery, defining CHARLIE SMITH LONDON and gallery director Zavier Ellis’ unique curatorial vision. The gallery has also established itself as a discovery zone by being the first to exhibit many acclaimed young artists via its annual graduate exhibition Young Gods. Beyond the gallery walls, the gallery has participated in over 30 art fairs in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, UK and USA. Zavier Ellis also launched the monumental annual exhibition THE FUTURE CAN WAIT with Simon Rumley, a ten-year project that was presented in partnership with Saatchi’s New Sensations for four years and culminated in helping organise the seminal fund-raising exhibition In Memoriam Francesca Lowe. Ellis has also curated or co-curated gallery, museum and pop up exhibitions in Berlin, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Klaipėda, London, Los Angeles, Naples and Rome. And, perhaps most notably, the gallery has placed millions of pounds worth of artwork into collections globally, working with many of the most prominent international collectors, and enabling artists to continue to do what artists do best: making work. This exhibition consists of some (but by no means all) of Ellis’ favourite artists who have shown over the years at CHARLIE SMITH LONDON; some whom he has been tracking and wanting to show; and gallery artists. We hope you can join us on July 11th to help us celebrate 10 Years! Please contact gallery for images and further information. |
Press Release | 2018
| EXHIBITION DATES Friday 23 November – Saturday 22 December 2018 |
| ‘In spite of their unearthly strangeness I had a feeling that there was something familiar about them.’ William Hope Hodgson, The Crew of the Lancing, 1914 CHARLIE SMITH LONDON is delighted to present Tom Butler’s third solo exhibition at the gallery. ‘Ensemble’ will include three bodies of work. In addition to Butler’s ongoing series of painted cabinet cards, for which he is most recognised, the exhibition will represent the London debut of two new photographic series. Conveying a fascination with photographic portraiture from the medium’s earliest phases, combined with an enquiry into Victorian gothic literature, and specifically its tendency to describe the body as liable to ruin, shape changing or re-assemblage, Butler continues to make beguiling, uncanny images. In ’Ten Elmers’, Butler has collected ten identical cabinet cards in order to work on the same image with various motifs. In doing so, he suggests identities are characterized by embellishment, but also by what remains unadorned. The performative self-portrait ‘Figure’ series adopts a similar strategy. By using a remote-control shutter release and black fabric to mask most of his body, Butler creates images that are determined predominantly by what is concealed, rather than revealed. In his ‘Homunculi’ series, Butler directly references gothic and alchemical tropes. In contrast to the shrouded ‘Figure’ photographs, Butler combines multiple images of his own exposed body parts to create singular, abject self-portraits. Taken together, this fascinating body of work is far more revelatory than Butler’s previous canon, elucidating on the body as an objectification of self. The physical transformation of body or body elements renders the subject ambiguous by obscuring its identity, or suggesting multiple readings, whilst infusing it with disquieting psychological resonance. |
Press Release | Context: Gallery Artists & Collaborators | 2018
| Context: Gallery Artists & Collaborators |
| Peter Ashton Jones, Emma Bennett, Kiera Bennett, Tom Butler, Dan Coombs, Florian Heinke, Sam Jackson, Reece Jones, Kate Lyddon, Eric Manigaud, Wendy Mayer, Hugh Mendes, Alex Gene Morrison, Gavin Nolan, Dominic Shepherd, John Stark, Geraldine Swayne, Barry Thompson, Gavin Tremlett |
| EXHIBITION DATES Friday 23 February – Saturday 31 March 2018 |
| In our first exhibition of the year, CHARLIE SMITH LONDON is pleased to offer a unique opportunity to view our gallery artists and key collaborators in context. Gallery Director Zavier Ellis states: “In some ways a gallery artists show is a pretty dull and unimaginative thing to do. But, on the upside it enables our audience to digest our stable in context. We are mostly a painter’s gallery, albeit with a curatorial emphasis that embraces every medium when appropriate. The artists we exhibit are technical, but this is nowhere near enough in itself. You will find that each one of them makes work with an intense emotional, philosophical or psychological charge, and so their work operates in a challenging, profound way. These artists are lateral thinkers who know that the trajectory of history is not as linear as is often presented, and that everything operates in a complex, non-hierarchical, interconnected way. Embracing doctrines and tendencies from the modern and postmodern periods, as well as near and deep history, they conduct their investigation without irony or sentimentality, but rather with positive affirmation, intelligence and deliberation. Added to the gallery artists in this show, we have invited others with whom we collaborate regularly, who work in paint, pencil, charcoal and installation. So in actual fact, a potentially dull and unimaginative idea becomes an intriguing and engaging proposition. This is not for everyone, but those that get it will be rewarded for their conviction.” |
Press Release | 2015
| TOM BUTLER | Inhabitants |
| Exhibition Dates : Friday February 20th - Sunday March 28th 2015 |
| CHARLIE SMITH LONDON is delighted to present Tom Butler with his second one person exhibition at the gallery. Earlier in the year a curator asked me if there was a limit to the number of my cabinet cards works. I said no, because it felt like I was growing a population of characters that continues to surprise and fascinate me. However, this was a new idea because I realised they were becoming a population or citizenship and more than just an ongoing series of characters. To let the population grow I started imagining an island (of sorts) where they could exist and I could continue to create them. It wasn’t until later in the year that I read H.G. Wells’ ‘Island of Dr Moreau’, where a shipwrecked man is rescued and brought to the shores of a mysterious island populated with beast-men who are created by Dr Moreau in scientific experiments. Wells’ island itself is unnamed, as is its strange population, only described in the book as: ‘the inhabitants’. In this exhibition Butler continues to evolve his ongoing series of appropriated Victorian cabinet cards. Painted with beautifully delicate gouache, each subject is laboriously transformed, being engaged by an inexplicable shape, pattern or species. The inherent character of the card, with its clear traces of the passing of time; and the appearance and positioning of the sitter, prompt Butler to instinctively decide how and where to alter the original object. This series introduces new motifs as well as new treatment of existing motifs, including geometric clouds, bisecting barriers, floral transformations and spiritual exhalations. Butler then pushes them in extremis, where the sitter might be entirely overtaken or conversely their features remain very much apparent. We are treated to a number of works where there is clear suggestion of interaction between the subject and a mysterious plane, force or aura, rendering the subject pre-occupied rather than overwhelmed. Butler has also introduced renditions of pairs, groups and families alongside his iconic single subjects. Using similar modes of modification, Butler toys with group dynamics, accentuating isolation or integration. At times sinister and always nostalgic, the notion of time past is even more evident here. The removal of identities implies death, and varied motifs within single pieces suggest the different direction that lives of individuals take. Once a group with shared interests, experiences and motivations, one is left to reflect on separation, loss, diversion and fulfilled or unfulfilled intentions. |
Press Release | 2013
| THE SAATCHI GALLERY & CHANNEL 4’S NEW SENSATIONS | |
| Location: B1, Victoria House Basement, Bloomsbury Square, London, WC1B 4DA Dates: VIP Preview: Monday October 13th 6:30-9:00pm Public Hours: Tuesday October 14th – Saturday October 18th 11:00am-6:00pm, free entry. | |
| Curated by Zavier Ellis and Simon Rumley | |
| Saatchi Gallery & Channel 4’s New Sensations and THE FUTURE CAN WAIT present London’s biggest independent curated exhibition. Once again Saatchi’s New Sensations and THE FUTURE CAN WAIT join forces to present over 60 artists in Bloomsbury Square’s stunning museum scale venue Victoria House. The exhibition is London’s longest running event alongside Frieze Art Fair and has become a key destination for discovering the best emerging to mid-career artists and recent graduates in the UK. Selected by contemporary art world taste makers, the event continues to provide the opportunity for first time buyers and world class collectors to acquire the most exciting new wave art. New Sensations, sponsored by Absolut, and THE FUTURE CAN WAIT, were initiated in 2007. New Sensations was launched by the Saatchi Gallery and Channel 4 to find and support the most imaginative and talented young artists in the UK and to present their work to an international audience during Frieze week. THE FUTURE CAN WAIT was launched by Zavier Ellis and Simon Rumley as an ambitious, curated exhibition of emerging to mid-career artists to offer an alternative experience to the traditional gallery and art fair systems. |