“Combined with mastery of execution, Corinna Button conquers our imagination by placing a perennial mirror into our collective human experience.” Sergio Gomez Curator;
Corinna Button completed a BA Honors degree in Fine Art at Leeds followed by a Post Graduate Advanced Printmaking in London.
Button was elected member of the Royal Society of Painters and Printmakers and has exhibited in solo and mixed shows Internationally, presenting works in printmaking, painting, and sculpture. Her work is held in noteworthy collections including the permanent collections of Victoria and Albert Museum, London, The Jiangsu Art Museum, China, The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, The University of Aberystwyth, Wales, The BBC, and Castle Lesley, Ireland.
Button lived for seven years in Chicago and exhibited her first Chicago solo show ‘About Face’ at the Zhou B Art Center Gallery in 2012. She has since been featured in numerous group shows in the USA including ‘Artists interpret Shakespeare’ at the Elmhurst museum and the ‘Chicago Invasion’ exhibition that was presented at Blue Rider Gallery in Taipei.
She completed the Hyde Park Center program in 2013 which led to her solo show ‘Interfaces' at Hyde Park Art Center in 2017.
Button has garnered recognition with awards, including The Hector Purchase Prize, The University of Aberystwyth print prize Wales UK, ‘Voices’ Art Symposium Prize for live painting, Dubuque USA and Dry Red Press, London, Publishing award and her work is featured in several publications; ‘Extraordinary Sketchbooks’ and ‘Printmaker’s Secrets’ (Published by A&C Black ) Her work can be found in many private collections worldwide.
Button lives and works in London.
"There's no telling what wonders Button might go on unearthing now, returning to her London base and seeing the world on another scale, in another light, as she goes on unfurling her elegant, racy, imaginative multitude of textures, forms, and ever-changing moods"
Sue Roe, author of; 'The Private lives of the impressionists'
& In Montmartre : Picasso, Matisse and Modernism in Paris, 1900-1910
After completing a BA honors degree in painting, I pursued a printmaking postgraduate degree in the UK, where I am from. It was during this time that I was impacted by the German Expressionists, whose works, particularly in printmaking, left an indelible impression on me. I dedicated many subsequent years to developing my work in etching and other forms of printmaking. Today, printmaking continues to be a medium that intrigues me and is hugely influential in the way I approach my painting and sculpture.
During my years in Chicago (2010 – 2016) I was able to expand my work in both printmaking and painting — often combining elements of both in one piece. To develop a painting or drawing I use my prints as the starting point, which are often worked into a painting using collage and printed impressions from fabrics and embossed papers. I then use printmaking tools, such as rollers, squeegees, and scrapers, to apply paint. My clay-based sculptures are also layered and imprinted with fabric patterns; a variety of stampings and tooled marks give their surfaces the appearance of “etched lines.”
People are the subjects of my work and I am intrigued by moments that, despite initially appearing quite commonplace, are (for me) charged with great significance and meaning. My inspiration is drawn from experiences or predicaments I encounter in daily life, such as social gatherings, images from social media, and words from a song or a poem. All these generate ideas for themes that I can build upon, “dress-up” and weave into my work. I compose figures either in groupings or as a single figure or just a face. My aim is not to create exact likenesses, but rather to create prototypical or archetypal figures whose personality or identity is both partly exposed and partly hidden beneath the surface. Everything about the way I work (both technique and subject) is motivated by the desire to reveal or “bring something to light.” Thus my process involves layering then scraping back, building then excavating; otherwise, peeling back layers to “carve-out” and reveal something hidden beneath the surface.
It is through these painted, sculpted, or printed figures that I wish to project recognizable aspects of the human experience. I want to compel and to draw the viewer in for a closer look beyond the surface.
