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As an artist, a teacher, and a mentor, Jerry Butler has dedicated himself to uplifting the Black community. His powerful paintings and collage works contrast dense patterning with swathes of strong, flat color, and his subjects draw on the challenges of his youth and frustration with the racism he has experienced throughout his life. Butler’s portraits, which freely mix realism and abstract elements, honor individuals from his own community as well as figures from history.
Echoes from the Arc represents Butler’s response to Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous assertion that the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice. In this series of richly textured portraits, Butler celebrates those he calls “the arc benders,” from committed activists and change-makers to ordinary people surviving against impossible odds. “My responsibility as an artist is to tell the truth,” Butler says. “I feel I have to illustrate and talk about the bravery of everyday people.”
