Gill Button London based painter.
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• contact studio: post@gillbutton.com
• Instagram: @buttonfruit
London based painter Gill Button is known for her captivating translation of found imagery; creating gestural, intimate portraits that are deeply personal and intuitive. Capturing moments of wonder, melancholy, strength or vulnerability, Button’s practice makes us question how we connect to each other, but ultimately to ourselves. Her larger canvases, often cinematic in nature, depict moments of contemplation; evocative of distant dreams, fears or memories.
Recent solo shows include Traces of You, James Freeman Gallery, London; Han Feng Art Space, Shanghai; Edge of Time, Unit London; From Iceland to Lalaland, Ame Nue, Hamburg. With recent group exhibitions in Tokyo, LA, Madrid, Paris, Berlin. A graduate of Kingston College of Art London, Button has been a judge and curator for the Ing Discerning Eye exhibition, spoken on several panel discussions, and given masterclasses in painting, Soho House. Art residencies include Han Feng Art Space in Shanghai and Room on the Roof at Debijenkork, Amsterdam in partnership with Rijksmuseum.
Solo Exhibitions:
UPCOMING 11th April - 4th May, 2024: A Bout de Souffle, James Freeman Gallery, London.
2023: Echoes of Blue: presentation following art residency at Han Feng Art Space, New York.
2023: A Distant Glow, CANArt (Contemporary Art Now art fair, Ibiza) with Soho Revue Gallery.
2023: Impermanence, Soho Revue Gallery, London
2021: Edge of Time, Platform series online viewing room, Unit London.
2020: Traces of You, James Freeman Gallery, London.
2019/20: Han Feng Art Space, Shanghai.
2018: From Iceland to Lalaland, Âme Nue, Hamburg.
2017: Eye Of The Day, de Bijenkorf, Amsterdam.
2016: The Divine Marchesa, Less is More Projects, Paris.
2016: New Faces, The Bluebird, London.
Two-Person Shows:
2021: Reveries (with William Brickel), James Freeman Gallery, London.
2018: Muse (with Sikelela Owen), James Freeman Gallery, London.
2018: Portefoin, Le Marais , Paris.
“ “There is real strength in the fragility and ethereal nature of Gill Button’s paintings that really appeals to me. They leave space for deep contemplation.” “I feel that I must give my full attention to every detail of this canvas, because, like the cloud in the title, it feels like it is going to dissolve and reform at any moment. Gill Button’s lucid works are filled with a beauty and a sadness.””
Select Group Exhibitions:
2023: Man Ray and Fashion, Mode Museum, Antwerp.
2023: Sotheby’s Germany, benefit art auction (Desideria dementia care) Palais Oppenheim, Cologne.
2023: Papier, Delphian Gallery, La Madeleine, Ligné, France.
2023: Art on a Postcard, International Women’s day, curated by Beth Greenacre, Fitzrovia Gallery, London.
2022: London Art Fair, with James Freeman Gallery.
2022: Character, MothFlower
2021: The Female Gaze, The Stand, London
2021: London Art Fair with James Freeman Gallery
2020: On Time, James Freeman Gallery
2020: Drawn Together, 11th June - 26th July, Unit London (online charity exhibition)
2019: Art on a Postcard, for International Women’s Day, Allbright Mayfair, London, March 2019
2019: Museo ABC, Madrid.
2019: Studiolo 02, Galerie de Valois, Jardin du Palais Royal, Paris.
2018: December, James Freeman Gallery, London.
2017: The Great Women Artists, Mother London.
2017: Jardin du Palais Royal, 145, Galerie de Valois, Paris.
2017: Drawn In, group show Wilding Cran Gallery, LA.
2017: Moving KateThe Mass Gallery, Tokyo.
2017: Flora, Showstudio, London.
2017: Studiolo 01, Galerie de Valois, Jardin du Palais Royal, Paris.
2017: YIA Art Fair, Brussels: with Less is More Projects.
2017: Room Capacity, Berlin, Gallery Weekend Berlin.
2017: Showstudio, London: Moving Kate.
2017: LondonArt Fair, James Freeman Gallery.
2016: YIA Art Fair, 20-23 October, 2016, Le Carreau du Temple, Paris(with Less is More Projects).
2016: Gallery 8, London.
2016: Decadents, 4 artist show, James Freeman Gallery, London.
2016: Art and Antiques Fair, Olympia, London.
2016: YIA Art Fair, Brussels: 20 - 24 April 2016, with Less is More Projects.
2015: YIA Art Fair, Paris(3 person show with Less is More Projects).
2014: Threadneedle Figurative Art Prize, Mall galleries, London
““With her sensitive style of expression, British painter Gill Button conveys the fascinating beauty of life in oil paintings, watercolours and ink drawings. Equally passionately capturing a look on someone’s face, a mood, an attitude or the simple poesy of a faraway landscape, she translates intuitive thoughts into works of art.”
Education:
Kingston School of Art, London, BA (hons)
Art Foundation, Maidstone College of Art
Residencies:
• 2023 Han Feng Art Space, NYC (Sep - Nov).
• 2019 Han Feng Art Space, Shanghai.
• 2017: Room on the Roof, in the tower of de Bijenkorf Amsterdam, in partnership with The Rijksmuseum.
• 2017: Iceland: research and artwork creation for Âme Nue solo show.
““Echoes of recognition and subtle studies of patterns hint back to her source material, but there is something much more personal in Gill’s work. Appropriated images become invested with feelings; portraits of strong identities are tempered with the fragility of fame. Gill uses the public eye as a frame through which to channel emotional identification so that her works become less about the subject, and more a question of the emotional makeup of the image, and of how the viewer gives them meaning.”
Events etc.
• Curator and selection panellist: Ing Discerning Eye competition, 2019.
• Artwork donation: Art on A Postcard, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023.
• Ambassador for UN agency ILO, campaign against human trafficking.
• Artwork donation: auction for charity Hospital Rooms, Soho House London, September 2019.
• Artwork donation: Art on a Postcard exhibition/auction for hepatitis C, 2019.
• Masterclass in painting given Port Eliot Festival, August 2017.
• Masterclass in painting given Soho House Electric, June 2017.
• Panellist: Art from a female perspective, hosted by Marguerite London at Showstudio, 2017.
• Artwork donation for Children’s Museum of the Arts auction, for vulnerable children throughout
New York, November 2017.
• Artwork created for British Heart Foundation awareness campaign, September 2017.
• Panellist: Female artists and social media, Apple Store, Covent Garden, July 2016.
Gallery Representation
London: James Freeman Gallery info@Jamesfreemangallery.com
Shanghai / New York: Han Feng Art Space hello@hanfeng.com
““The UK-based Gill Button’s paintings are done in a playful, painterly hand that makes the visages, coifs, and poses of high fashion both intimate and accessible. Like the stray wisp of hair framing the face of the immaculate model or the untucked edge of a t-shirt holding a look together, the confident, fluid brushwork of @buttonfruit’s paintings make beauty and glamour ever more beautiful and glamorous by rendering the imperfect details—slight asymmetry; the palette of colors that make up the purplish blue shadows under an eye. Forget Photoshop or airbrushing: the magic is in seeing every stroke, every painterly decision. The paintings are sleek, fluid, and effortless—the artistic equivalent of that hip, disaffected friend you adore and secretly wouldn’t mind emulating. Tightly cropped on Instagram, the compositions pull the viewer up close and personal: @buttonfruit’s portraits are at once confrontational and cool, intimate and vulnerable. In her riff for #GucciGram on the #GGCaleido and #GGBlooms prints, @buttonfruit gives the model a sharp, intelligent gaze; she’s a woman who knows how to get what she wants, and she’s dressed to do it. The artist’s characteristically fluid brushwork and eye for color render patterns in confident, crisp detail; it’s dazzlingly clear and refreshing to look upon. ”
Gill Button during residency in Amsterdam.
