Visual artists say Butter fine art fair has altered their career trajectories

Without the Butter fine art fair, painter Kyng Rhodes likely would have taken his talents to a city other than his hometown of Indianapolis.

“I probably would have sought out other horizons,” said Rhodes, a 2012 graduate of Arsenal Tech High School. “Actually, I was planning to go to New York or Texas.”

Butter, the Labor Day weekend showcase for Black artists, debuted in 2021 and gave Rhodes a glimpse of a new creative landscape in Indianapolis. Since the first Butter exhibition of his paintings defined by saturated colors, spotlights above human subjects and accents of flowers, Rhodes’ work has been displayed at Newfields and Gainbridge Fieldhouse and was selected for the “All Lanes Lead to Indy” art project at this summer’s U.S. Olympic Swim Trials.

That’s all helped Rhodes opt to stay in Indianapolis.

“I thought, ‘I could go to one of these cities and be a small drop of juice inside of a jug. Or I could stay here and help create and build what we’re experiencing,’” Rhodes said.

The fourth edition of Butter, billed as “America’s Equitable Fine Art Fair,” is scheduled Friday through Sunday at the Stutz complex at the intersection of 10th Street and Capitol Avenue.

Artist Ashley Nora painted the largest image associated with Butter’s launch in 2021. Nora’s “Keepers of Culture” mural paid tribute to eight Indianapolis actors, musicians and journalists and continues to be visible on the exterior of the Stutz at the intersection of 11th Street and Senate Avenue.

Nora said her life was changed by Malina Simone Bacon and Alan Bacon, co-founders of the Butter event and cultural firm GangGang.

“The whole world got a chance to see my work,” Nora said.

She had been “applying, applying, applying” to be part of exhibits and other opportunities, she said, but kept getting turned down.

“Mali and Alan said, ‘Ashley, can you do this 40-foot-by-90-foot wall?’” she said.

For Nora, the second edition of Butter topped the first. Collectors purchased seven of her artworks, and the proceeds were enough to cover her student loans.

“After being in that position of ‘starving artist’ or barely getting by, I don’t worry about that,” the Anderson University alum said. “My bills are paid, and I have abundance. I’m in a position to give back to others in a way I never would have thought possible in a million years.”

Part of Butter’s mission statement is to transform the mindsets and careers of visual artists. The event collects no commissions on sales, which allows artists to keep 100% of the collectors’ checks.

To date, the Labor Day weekend editions of Butter generated artwork sales of $175,000 in 2021, $250,000 in 2022 and $285,000 in 2023.

GangGang’s signature event featured 22 exhibiting artists in 2021. This year’s roster is made up of 60.

Four artists—Rhodes and Nora, along with Gary Gee and Shane “Fitz” Young—have displayed art at all four editions of Butter. The quartet also participated in a special edition of Butter at the Indianapolis Artsgarden during NBA All-Star festivities in February.

Rhodes said Butter supports artists through introductions to collectors and curators by facilitating high-quality photography of artwork and by increasing opportunities for media coverage.

“This is truly the most taken care of I’ve felt as an artist,” Rhodes said. “I don’t consider myself renowned. I’m still very much an emerging artist with hopes to reach greater heights in my career. But when I walk into Butter, the love and the community is inspiring.”

This year’s 10,000-square-foot exhibition hall, formerly a Myriad Health & Fitness location south of the main Stutz building, is painted pink. Butter Director Deonna Craig said the color represents a theme of “unconquerable love” at this year’s event.

“It’s as if the artwork is enveloped in this high level of great energy and love,” said Craig, who’s been an exhibiting artist at three of Butter’s four editions.

In the spotlight

Rhodes said he considers the spotlights he paints above people in his work to be the “Nike swoosh,” or trademark, of his creative output.

“I’m always calling attention to something,” he said.

Regarding the flowers that occupy the edges and backgrounds of his paintings, Rhodes said the imagery represents good things or the possibility of growth.

“I just find them very beautiful,” he said. “And, of course, they’re essential to our ecosystem and making sure we’re getting everything we need in fresh oxygen and absorbing what we don’t in carbon dioxide.”

After graduating from Tech High School, Rhodes worked for shoe retailer Finish Line before studying graphic design at Vincennes University.

Rhodes said his time as a professional graphic designer lacked creative fulfillment, so he decided to become a full-time artist during the early stages of the pandemic in 2020.

A key part of his career arc arrived when he decided to take one of his paintings to a Monument Circle protest of the police killing of George Floyd.

“It was a painting of a fist,” Rhodes said. “I thought, ‘I’m not going to make a sign. I’m going to use this as my protest piece.’”

The Bacons, who had yet to establish GangGang or Butter, introduced themselves to Rhodes and offered to purchase the painting.

Rhodes declined to sell, but the connection led to his recruitment for a Black Lives Matter mural that Malina Bacon helped to organize in August 2020.

His “B” anchored the artwork on Indiana Avenue.

Chipping away

In 2020, Nora was new to being a full-time artist after working five years as an analytical chemist.

She was enlisted to paint the “R” in the Black Lives Matter mural.

“Being able, for the first time, to meet 17 other artists—but not just artists, Black artists—was amazing,” Nora said of the collaborative mural. “Some were professors. We were different ages. Some were fathers. ‘You have a different style.’ ‘You’ve been doing it longer.’”

Nora said vandalism of the mural one week after its completion spurred the artists to form the Eighteen Art Collective. The group includes four-time Butter artists Rhodes, Nora, Gee and Young.

The aftermath of Floyd’s murder led to new opportunities for the artists.

“Every organization wanted to say, ‘Hey, I like Black people. Let’s use you,’” Nora said. “We knew what it was, but at the end of the day, ‘Yes, give us that opportunity so we can show you that we deserve to be there in the first place.’”

Nora grew up in Laurel, Mississippi. She was 17 when her family moved to Anderson following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

In 2023, Nora’s “In Sight” became the first solo exhibition by a female Black artist at Anderson University.

Her next goal as an artist is to become a sculptor of marble. Nora said this weekend’s Butter attendees will see a preview of what she has in mind, but she’s seeking a patron to finance the sourcing of material for future work.

It’s rare, she said, to see people of color as the subjects of marble sculptures.

“I will be a Black woman artist sculpting Black people in marble,” Nora said. “What happens if a patron believes and says, ‘I’m going to send you to London for three months so you can learn from the best. And then I want you to come back to Indianapolis and put Indianapolis on the map.’”

Notable return

Rhodes and Nora said they were happy to see Colette Pierce Burnette, former CEO of Newfields, listed among curators for this year’s edition of Butter.

Burnette led Newfields when the art museum and gardens presented a yearlong exhibition of work by the Eighteen Art Collective. Burnette’s 15-month tenure at Newfields ended in November with an abrupt and unexplained departure.

“I think she has a wonderful eye, and she’s an incredible woman,” Rhodes said of Burnette.

On Monday, Newfields announced that Le Monte Booker, chief financial officer of Chicago’s Field Museum, will succeed Burnette in the role of Newfields CEO and president.

In March 2023, Rhodes traveled with Burnette and other Newfields leaders to the Philadelphia Flower Show, where the museum won the Philadelphia Trophy for best use of color with flowering plants. Rhodes contributed a mural of Indiana birds and flowers to the presentation.

Craig said Burnette’s experience as an art collector and leader of organizations is valuable in the context of providing mentorship to Butter artists.

In promotional material for Butter, former Huston-Tillotson University President Burnette is described as a “drum major for justice and equity through education and the arts.” In January, Burnette was elected to the Marian University board of trustees.

“I’ll get a chance to hug her and tell her how amazing she is and pour into her,” Nora said of Burnette’s presence at Butter. “But here she is with the chance to pour into us again, a chance to say, ‘You’re valuable. You’re amazing.’ That is a feeling I can’t describe. … I cannot wait to tell her how valuable she is, not just to me but to this community.”•