Yuan Butler

Yuan Butler is an artist and art professor living and creating in Duluth, GA. From a young age, she nurtured a love for art and received academic training in drawing and painting, though she initially pursued a degree in Education. After immigrating to the United States with her family in 2014, she embarked on a second career in painting. In 2022, she earned an MFA in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), where she cultivated her artistic voice and developed a well-rounded practice that has led to numerous exhibitions and publications.

Through continuous exploration, Butler discovered that abstraction combined with figuration was the best medium to convey her intuitive vision. Her paintings have been prominently featured in solo and group exhibitions across the United States, Europe, and China. She has gained recognition in notable publications such as New American Paintings and Visionary Art Collective. Her work is part of both private and public collections in the United States, including the Coca-Cola Headquarters in Atlanta, GA.

To Butler, life has many dimensions, and her creative journey is a deep dive into her inner self, where she embraces change and continually adapts her aesthetics in pursuit of authenticity, originality, and truth.


Artist Statement

My work reflects my journey from a traditional Asian family rooted in patriarchal values to a new world where I found a sense of worth and belonging. My paintings are inspired by Asian mythologies, which I reinterpret through a modern visual language to create new, contemporary allegories. Since childhood, I have been mesmerized by the mysterious beauty and complexities of the natural world. Later, I saw the same qualities of vulnerability and power interwoven in the aesthetics of female forms and nature.

Having been forever awestruck by the sanctity and power of water, I infuse fluid elements into my paintings to provoke a sense of fantasy, reminding people of brief moments when life felt like dreamy encounters. Starting with intuitive gestural marks, my automatic drawings evolve organically, capturing inspirations from nature and my immediate surroundings. The resulting imagery, which oscillates between childlike wonder and sensuality, reflects the depth of my imagination. My art has become a meditative exploration, a transcendent response to the fluid myths of time and space, offering viewers a glimpse into my internal landscape.


www.geyuanart.com