I saw Butt Johnson’s work for the first time at the group show Greater Brooklyn at CRG gallery in 2005. At the end of opening I heard Butt say, “I’m overwhelmed.”

I went to Butt’s first solo showing at CRG gallery last Friday, you won’t believe your eyes. Butt’s references are old master paintings and engravings, comprising familiar images such as screen saver images, and video games, like Mario. Butt’s medium is ballpoint pen. He is very connected to the old, and doesn’t stray far from the images he grew up with. Pieter Bruegel’s Tower of Babel is his favorite painting. If you look closely at Butt’s drawing based on that painting you’ll see medieval structures with high-rise buildings on top, enormous cranes tower above, reaching for the heavens. There are Roman columns, and walls with cave-like drawings; you’re looking at how civilizations were built and how they continue to build. We see it now, the highest skyscraper, the grandest living quarters. We build on top of the old or just tear down the old and beautiful and start over. Butt says, “It’s man’s hubris.” Another piece I was quite taken by was of a car wrecked by a bomb smashed against an intricate Islamic pattern, you feel the tension of a beautiful rich history wrought with present day conflict.

One can spend a considerable amount of time in front of each drawing; Butt gives us so much in each. The detail in each drawing is exquisite. Butt fuses images of the very old, recent past and present. It’s all overwhelming.

CRG Gallery
548 West 22nd Street
212-229-2766
Through February 19th

Other shows to see
Ellen Gallagher
Gagosian
555 West 24th Street
212-741-1111
Through February 26th

José Luis Farinas
Skirting the Apocalypse
Miyako Yoshinaga art prospects
547 West 27th Street
212-268-7132
Through February 19th

Yvette Durant