Brian D. Butler (born July 1, 1961) is an art dealer and owner of the

1301PE 1301PE is a gallery in Los Angeles founded by Brian D. Butler in 1992. Brain Multiples Butler began Brain Multiples in 1991 to finance, edit, publish and distribute artists’ Edition (printmaking), editions. Rather than representing artists, Bu ...

Gallery in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Early life

Butler was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

where he studied art history.

Brain Multiples

In 1991, Butler began Brain Multiples to produce and exhibit artists’ editions. He financed, edited, published and distributed artists’ multiples, books and video editions. Rather than representing artists, Butler chose to collaborate with them on projects about which he was particularly enthusiastic. Among the artists whose editions have been produced by Brain Multiples are

John Baldessari John Anthony Baldessari (June 17, 1931 – January 2, 2020) was an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. He lived and worked in Santa Monica and Venice, California. Initially a paint ...

AA Bronson AA Bronson (born Michael Tims in Vancouver in 1946) is an artist. He was a founding member of the artists' group General Idea, was president and director of Printed Matter, Inc., and started the NY Art Book Fair and the LA Art Book Fair. Ea ...

Meg Cranston Meg Cranston (born 1960) is an American artist who works in sculpture and painting. She is also a writer. Early life and education Cranston was born in Baldwin, New York. She earned a B.A. in Anthropology/Sociology from Kenyon College in Ohio i ...

, Gretchen Faust,

Rachel Khedoori Rachel Khedoori (born 1964 in Sydney, Australia) is a contemporary artist of Iraqi Jewish heritage based in Los Angeles and known primarily for her mixed use of sculpture, film and architecture. Biography Khedoori was born in Sydney and raised ...

Paul McCarthy Paul McCarthy (born August 4, 1945) is an American artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Life McCarthy was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1945. He studied art at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, and later continued to ...

Jorge Pardo Jorge Pardo may refer to: *Jorge Pardo (artist), Cuban-American artist and sculptor *Jorge Pardo (musician) (born 1955), Spanish musician *J. D. Pardo Jorge Daniel Pardo (born September 7, 1980) is an American actor. He is best known for playing ...

, Jason Rhoades, Thaddeus Strode,

Diana Thater Diana Thater (born May 14, 1962, in San Francisco) is an American artist, curator, writer, and educator. She has been a pioneering creator of film, video, and installation art since the early 1990s. She lives and works in Los Angeles, California. ...

, and

Rirkrit Tiravanija Rirkrit Tiravanija (, Jerry Saltz (May 7, 2007)Conspicuous Consumption''New York Magazine''.) is a Thai contemporary artist residing in New York City, Berlin, and Chiangmai, Thailand. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1961. His installatio ...

1301

On April 29, 1992, Butler opened the 1301 Gallery in

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

, California. The purpose of 1301 was to present the work of artists, particularly those based in Los Angeles, in world-class one-person and group exhibitions. The opening exhibition of 1301 was ''Raw Material'' by Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler. Subsequent exhibitions at 1301 included a presentation of Jason Rhoades’ work, a group show featuring the work of Meg Cranston, Jorge Pardo,

, Lincoln Tobier, and

Sarah Seager Sarah Seager (born 1958) is a conceptual artist associated with the California Conceptualism movement of the late 1980s through mid-1990s based out of Los Angeles, California. She is known for making "clean works, many of them white, in which ...

, and ''Into the Lapse'', a presentation over one month which showed video works of over thirty artists.

1301PE

In 1996, 1301 became 1301PE, standing for Projects and Editions. In 1998, 1301PE moved from Santa Monica to its current location on the Miracle Mile in Los Angeles. The new location of the gallery welcomed the experimentation and smaller side projects of many internationally renowned artists. 1301PE presented the critically acclaimed exhibition ''Together again like never before: the complete poster work of Michael Asher and

Martin Kippenberger Martin Kippenberger (25 February 1953 – 7 March 1997) was a German painter, draftsman, photographer, sculptor, installation and performance artist. He became known for his prolific output in a wide range of styles and media, superfiction, as w ...

'', and the first presentation of the sole surviving member of

General Idea General Idea was a collective of three Canadian artists, Felix Partz, Jorge Zontal and AA Bronson, who were active from 1967 to 1994. As pioneers of early conceptual and media-based art, their collaboration became a model for artist-initiated ...

AA Bronson’s work ''Felix, June 5, 1994'', which shows Felix Partz, one of Bronson’s partners in the collective, on his deathbed having just succumbed to

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

related illness. Between 2005 and 2008 Butler took over as director of ARTSPACE in

Auckland, New Zealand Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

. While at ARTSPACE, Butler established an endowment and helped found a publishing arm of the gallery called Clouds. With the project ''Speculation'', Butler curated an exhibition for the 52nd

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

in the format of a book. He selected seven artists who in turn selected thirty artists to present a collection of their works. In 2008, Butler returned to Los Angeles, where he continues to oversee 1301PE’s exhibition program. Butler and 1301PE have represented such internationally acclaimed artists as

Fiona Banner Fiona Banner (born 1966), also known as The Vanity Press, is a British artist. Her work encompasses sculpture, drawing, installation and text, and demonstrates a long-standing fascination with the emblem of fighter aircraft and their role within cu ...

, of the

Young British Artists The Young British Artists, or YBAs—also referred to as Brit artists and Britart—is a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London in 1988. Many of the YBA artists graduated from the BA Fine Art course at Golds ...

MacArthur Fellows The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and ...

Uta Barth Uta Barth (born 1958) is a contemporary German-American photographer whose work addresses themes such as perception, optical illusion and non-place. Her early work emerged in the late 1980s and 1990s, "inverting the notion of background and foreg ...

and Jorge Pardo,

Jack Goldstein Jack Goldstein (September 27, 1945 – March 14, 2003) was a Canadian born, California and New York-based performance and conceptual artist turned post-conceptual painter in the 1980s. Early life and education Goldstein was born to a Jewish ...

Philippe Parreno Philippe Parreno (born 1964 in Grenoble, France) is a French contemporary artist, living and working in Paris. His works include films, Installation art, installations, performances, drawings, and text. Parreno's work centers around both expand ...

Jessica Stockholder Jessica Stockholder (born 1959) is a Canadian-American artist known for site-specific installation art, installation works and sculptures that are often described as "paintings in space."Kino, Carol"Go Ahead, Play With (And On) the Art,"''The ...

, Diana Thater, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Pae White and Paul Winstanley. Emerging artists whom the gallery represents include Jan Albers, Fiona Connor, Kirsten Everberg, Jorge Mendez Blake, Blake Rayne, SUPERFLEX and Kerry Tribe.

Philanthropy

Butler has been a committee member of Angel Art Auction benefiting

Project Angel Food Project Angel Food is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in Los Angeles County which provides free meals for people too sick to shop and cook for themselves. Project Angel Food serves the majority of Los Angeles County; South Los Angeles and Metro ...

and the Pasadena Art Alliance.

References

External links

1301PE

Brian Butler interview on the Conversation

Brian Butler interview on Radio New Zealand's Kim Hill Show
{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Brian D. 1961 births Living people