Mark Butler

Mark makes drawn and sculptural pieces inspired by walks taken near to his home. Each journey, and each resulting piece, highlights something different, and together they reflect on his ongoing experiences and relationship with his local area.

Although he uses metal in his sculptures - a markedly permanent material - he harnesses chance by using wood or thin wax originals in his castings to create imperfect and fractured pieces, mirroring the impermanence and vulnerability of the environment around him.

Maps are a significant part of the way he experiences the landscape: visualising where he want to go, navigating through it, recording his journeys. For Mark, maps invoke memories – of past walks and past experiences. At the same time they provide the means to plan new walks, or re-imagine old ones. Maps tie this series together and he uses their universal language to draw viewers in and invite them to explore the work.

Unfolding a map to begin planning a new adventure, discovering ‘treasures’ along a walk, recalling memories of previous journeys, imagining the history of an area, taking notice of environmental issues. All of these are subjects explored in Mark's work.

2022 Saltaire Arts Trail
‘Art forms in Nature’ (solo exhibition) Mill Bridge Gallery, Skipton North Yorkshire Open Studios
Art in the Pen, Skipton
2021 'Lie of the Land' (solo exhibition) Mill Bridge Gallery, Skipton Art in the Pen
'Summer. Somewhere', Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley Solar Gallery 'What If' & 'New Horizons', Ilkley Sculpture Show North, Leeds
art& York, online
2020 ‘Ash: A Celebration and a Lament’ joint exhibition, Mill Bridge Gallery, Skipton
Solar Gallery, Ilkley
2019 ‘Ash: A Celebration and a Lament’ joint exhibition, Yoredale, Bainbridge ‘Positive Emotions’ Kunsthuis Gallery, Crayke
‘Comings and Goings’, Mill Bridge Gallery, Skipton Solar Gallery, Ilkley
North Yorkshire Open Studios
Ilkley Art Trail
Art in the Pen
2018 'The Celestial Landscape', joint exhibition at Mill Bridge Gallery, Skipton Saltaire Arts Trail
Ones to Watch, Sunny Bank Mills British Craft Trade Fair, Harrogate Grassington Open Studios ‘Swarm’, Grassington Festival Craven Arts Trail, Skipton
Ilkley Arts Weekend
Art&, York
Craven Christmas, Skipton
2017 North Yorkshire Open Studios, Grassington Ilkley Art Trail
Made for Giving, Harrogate Craven Arts Christmas, Skipton Craft in the Pen, Skipton
2016 'Precious Landscapes', joint exhibition at Yoredale, Bainbridge Craven Arts Christmas, Skipton