New Exhibition Marks the First Presentation of Work Created Through The Raft’s Intensive Artist Residency at Mirabo Press
Working across painting, printmaking and sculpture, Butler examines the structures, surfaces and overlooked spaces of the built environment. In Commotion, imagery ranging from imposing infrastructure to back lots, fencing, road signs and architectural fragments is distorted, layered and reconstructed until familiar surroundings become increasingly unstable.
The exhibition includes a new series of paintings developed through a deliberately convoluted process. Butler begins with imagery captured through mapping software, manipulates and distorts it digitally, then translates those altered images into paint. Fragments of text, glimpses of structures and contradictory spatial cues remain visible, but resist resolving into a single coherent view.
Commotion also marks an important milestone for The Raft Residency, an artist-support initiative created by Art Resource/TENfold Gallery in honor of Elisabeth Samuels (1954–2024), an artist, educator, curator, gallerist and arts champion whose life and work embodied a deep commitment to artists and the cultural community around them.
The Raft Residency began with the production of exhibition booklets accompanying projects by DJ Carr and Abe Ferraro, creating lasting records of their work and extending the exhibitions beyond the gallery walls. With Butler, the program expands into its first intensive artist residency.
During a two-week period at Mirabo Press, Butler worked in close collaboration with the print studio to develop a new body of unique screenprints and large-scale monoprints. The resulting works extend the visual language of his paintings through repetition, layering, reflective surfaces and the possibilities of printmaking. Spatially ambiguous road-sign forms, fragments of architecture and text, and increasingly gestural monoprints emerged from the residency process.
Butler will also produce an exhibition booklet as part of The Raft Residency, continuing a central component of the program while documenting this first intensive residency and the work that developed from it.
The paintings and prints will be shown alongside sculptural installations incorporating layers of chain-link fencing, transforming a familiar material associated with separation and control into something unexpectedly organic and unruly.
For Art Resource, Commotion represents the full arc The Raft Residency was created to support: giving artists space and resources to experiment, supporting the creation of new work, presenting that work publicly, and producing a publication that carries the project forward beyond the exhibition.
SYNOPSIS:
In Commotion, Kyle Butler transforms familiar features of the built environment through painting, printmaking and sculpture. Roads, fencing, signs, industrial structures, architectural fragments and overlooked spaces are distorted and reconstructed, shifting between representation, abstraction and visual noise.
Butler’s new paintings begin with imagery captured through mapping software, which he digitally manipulates before translating it into paint. The exhibition also includes unique screenprints and large-scale monoprints developed during his week-long residency at Mirabo Press, as well as sculptural installations incorporating layered fields of chain-link fencing.
The evening includes:
• A first look at Kyle Butler: Commotion
• New paintings, print works and sculptural installations by Butler
• The public debut of work created during the first intensive Raft Residency at Mirabo Press
• An opportunity to meet the artist and learn more about the residency
• Free admission and an opening reception from 7:00–9:00 PM
Attachments (High resolution versions available by request) :
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Monotype print created during The Raft Residency
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Kyle Butler and Mirabo Press Co-founder Bob Flemming during the inaugural raft residency
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Detail shot of a mixed media work created during The Raft Residency
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Kyle Butler Mixed media on panel created for Commotion, 2026
About Kyle Butler
Kyle Butler is a Buffalo-based artist working across painting, printmaking, video, audio and installation. Born and raised in rural Michigan, Butler earned his BFA from Central Michigan University and his MFA in Visual Studies from the University at Buffalo. His work has been exhibited throughout the region, including solo exhibitions at Buffalo Arts Studio, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center and Nina Freudenheim Gallery, and group exhibitions at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Burchfield Penney Art Center and Rochester Contemporary Art Center. His work is held in public and private collections, including those of the Buffalo AKG and Burchfield Penney. Butler is currently Assistant Professor of Fine Arts at Villa Maria College.
About Art Resource
Art Resource is a Buffalo-based nonprofit arts organization dedicated to supporting artists, expanding access to contemporary art and reinvesting in the Western New York community. Through its two gallery spaces, TENfold Gallery and Gallery Josephine, as well as satellite exhibitions, artist-focused initiatives and free public programming, Art Resource works to connect artists and audiences both inside and outside the traditional gallery setting. A portion of every artwork sale supports a local nonprofit partner, extending the impact of collecting into the broader community.
About Mirabo Press
Mirabo Press is a fine art printmaking studio in Buffalo, New York, founded by Bob Fleming, Rachel Shelton and Mizin Shin. The studio produces limited-edition and one-of-a-kind prints, hosts artist residencies and workshops, and collaborates with artists and cultural institutions locally, nationally and internationally. Its 6,700-square-foot facility supports intaglio, monotype, relief, digital and screenprinting processes, with an emphasis on experimentation, collaboration and the longstanding relationship between artists and skilled printmakers.
About The Raft Residency
The Raft Residency is an artist-support initiative created by Art Resource/TENfold Gallery in partnership with Mirabo Press in honor of Elisabeth Samuels, artist, educator, curator, gallerist and champion of the arts. The program supports artists through experimentation, collaboration, exhibition and publication. Its first phase included exhibition booklets accompanying projects by DJ Carr and Abe Ferraro. In 2026, Kyle Butler became the first artist to undertake The Raft’s intensive residency component, spending a concentrated week at Mirabo Press developing a new body of print-based work. The program is designed to expand in future years to provide additional residency opportunities and support engagement among artists, curators and writers in Western New York and the broader region.
I especially like including all four because the end of the release then reads like a real institutional press release rather than simply an exhibition announcement: About Kyle / About The Raft / About Art Resource / About Mirabo Press. That also gives the press very clean language to pull from without muddying who did what.