12 Inches of Sin V || Best In Show
Born in the UK, painter Paul Butvila lives and works in British Columbia, Canada and is admired for an impressive command of photo realism. In Butvila’s delightful winning work Liquor, there is a dynamic intersection of sex, pop imagery and word play, typical of the artist’s approach that combines beauty and amusing and incisive commentary on the meanings and ambiguities of words. Butvila’s delightful artistic perfection emerges from an exuberant use of erotic form, a virtuoso depiction of light and velvety texture paired with high glamour and retro style. Amusing, sexy and sophisticated, Butvila’s work has an enduringly modern classicism paired with a highly-polished eroticism.
The artist’s considerable technical finesse, sense of humor, and undeniably sexy approach mean his work is an assemblage of sorts, in the style of the late twentieth century painters James Rosenquist and Tom Wesselman. Like these iconic Pop artists, Butvila is interested in making a fantastic world that seems perfectly finished. Indeed, precision, technique, and a sense of succulence characterize intimate close-up works like Liquor. – Rosa JH Berland
