Meet The Artist
Corinna Button
Corinna Button’s work tells stories, but not in the conventional, linear sense. The stories her pictures tell feel as if they’re in the process of being glimpsed, unearthed, and we can see them as they’re etched into being, scratched out on canvas, layered up in delicate textures and bold, lyrical marks, evoking desire, desperation, celebration, mystery and intrigue, which deepens into bold, authoritative images as we look. Her stories are always unfinished, in process, pulling us in, and her suggestive forms surely reference the work of Munch, Nolde, Beckman, Kollwitz, even early Picasso, all of whom set up tantalizing associations within the subtle complexity of this artist’s unique and subtly provocative vision.
Sue Roe, Author of ‘The Private Lives of the Impressionists and ‘ GWEN JOHN - A LIFE’
My work is about digging and excavating – peeling back layers to reveal something hidden beneath the surface. The very nature and process of printmaking for me is about bringing something to light. It continues to be a medium that intrigues me and it’s also hugely influential in the way I approach my paintings. I like to work very physically by scraping and carving at both. It’s important for me that the surface holds and presents an intrigue as well as immediacy.
More and more I’m combining the two media. Starting with the intention of making a print I sometimes end up with something more like a painting, which means I don’t always make a print suitable for editioning in the conventional way. I am constantly in search of freshness, spontaneity, immediacy of line and rich textures and layers. I don’t intend to make images that have been or look ‘rehearsed’.
In everyday encounters I might see something quite fascinating happening beneath the surface. It can manifest itself as something that at first glance appears quite ordinary - people at their daily tasks or routines, or an advert in a magazine. It could be a word or snippet of conversation, a particular fabric in a dress or curtain; sometimes it’s autobiographical and personal. Whatever the trigger, I frequently draw on disparate sources snapped out of our so-called reality and bring them together into an imagined, unreal world to further capture and exaggerate identity or to emphasize something particular about the human condition. I want to compel the viewer into feeling and seeing another, significant aspect of the human experience in our time.
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I want my work to reveal a strong sense of atmosphere and feeling, combining boldness with ambiguity, which can project and communicate something beyond the surface, something essentially unspoken.
CORINNA BUTTON - Member of Royal Society of painters and Printmakers (A.R.E.)
Corinna Button started out in Sheffield, studied (BA Hons) fine art at Leeds and then Post Graduate Advanced Printmaking at Croydon school of art. She has exhibited in both solo & mixed shows not only across Europe ; Hungary, Denmark, Germany & Luxembourg but also in New Zealand ,Korea & USA. She exhibits and sells her work regularly in galleries throughout the UK.
Corinna works in mediums including; Mix media; painting, etching, woodcuts and, collagraphs.
Her work can be found in many private collections internationally.
Work in public collections include the BBC, The university of Aberystwyth and the Ashmolean museum in Oxford.
Corinna now lives and works in Chicago.
Solo Exhibitions (From 2005):
2011
Gallery13 , 'Flights of Fancy’ Minneapolis USA
‘Basement Gallery’ Brumfield Contemp’ Art. Featured Printmaker, Boise, Idaho.
2010
Riverside Gallery, Barnes, London, UK
Cupola Gallery, ‘Feast’ Sheffield UK, UK
2009
Brumfield Contemporary Art Hastings, UK
‘Impact’ UWE ’Painting on a plate, Printing onto canvas’ Bristol, UK
2008
Rose Theatre, Kingston-u-Thames , UK
Wildwood Gallery ‘On The Pull II’, Bury St Edmunds ,Suffolk UK
2007
‘Gathering Storm’ Gallery Kaleidoscope, London.
Cupola Gallery ‘On The Pull’ Sheffield, UK
2005
Kew Gallery ‘Good Vibrations’ London
Selected Group Exhibitions USA 2010- 2012
Union Street Gallery,’ Being Human’, Chicago, , Idaho. ‘ Beauty School Dropouts’ Gallery13, Minneapolis. ‘National Portrait Exhibition’ 33 Contemporary Art, Chicago.
‘Calling Home’ and ‘Loss of space’ Milwaukee Arts Festival Chicago.
‘Mothers’ Woman Made Gallery, Chicago.
‘Centerline 10’ Curated by Oscar Friedl @ Zhou B Art Center, Chicago.,
International printmaking ‘ Old Planet, new Planet’, Gallery13, Minneapolis
Selected Group Exhibitions UK
Burton Gallery & Museum in Bideford. Bankside Gallery, London;
The Royal Academy Original Print Fair exhibition, London;;
International print exhibition @ Open Space Galleries- St Penryn, Cornwall, UK;
Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, UK
‘A Century of Sheffield Art @’,Millenium Galleries, Sheffield, UK;
Calder Gallery- Hebden Bridge, UK. Riverside Gallery Barnes, London.
Royal Academy Summer Show;