Ambreen Butt (born 1969) is a Boston based Pakistani American artist. Trained in miniature painting at the National College of Arts Lahore, Butt has lived and worked in the United States since the mid-1990s. Her work stems from the traditions of Persian and Indian miniature painting with a western modernist abstraction and engagement with contemporary themes.
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Butt's paintings are rooted in her bi-cultural identity and retain the intricate, decorative patterning that characterizes Persian and Indian miniature painting. She has updated the medium's painstaking technique with new materials, such as PET film, thread and collage. Her work discards the traditionally patronizing representation of women in the genre of miniature painting and re-defines the female identity through the gaze of a female artist. The protagonists in her work are modern day heroines celebrated for their courage in face of horrendous conditions.
2010
Dirty Pretty and other stories, Jeffe-Friede Gallery at Hopkins center for the arts, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
2008
Dirty Pretty, Anna Kustera Gallery, New York, NY
Ambreen Butt: Prints, Carroll and Sons Inc. Boston, MA
2007
Cirque Du Monde, Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston, MA
I need a hero, Site Specific Installation, Robert Hull Fleming Museum, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT
2006
Maud Morgan prize: Ambreen butt, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
2005
I Need a Hero, Kustera Tilton Gallery, New York, NY
Demons, Roberts & Tilton Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2003
What is past, or passing, or to come, Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston, MA
I must utter what comes to my lips, Worcester Art Museum; Worcester, MA
2002
Drawings by Ambreen Butt - Stephen L. Barstow Artist In Residence, University Art Gallery - Central Michigan University; Mount Pleasant, MI
2001
Ambreen Butt: Home and the World, Bernard Toale Gallery; Boston, MA
1999
Artist is an Allure of the closed; Invitational Site Specific Installation, Institute of Contemporary Art; Boston, MA
Bed of my own making; Bernard Toale Gallery; Boston, MA
1997
Ambreen Butt: New Paintings, Bernard Toale Gallery; Boston, MA
2010
Have I ever opposed you? New art from India and Pakistan, Faye Fleming and Partner, Geneva, Switzerland
2009
In Stitches Lelia Taghinia-Milani Heller Gallery, New York, NY. Curated by Beth Rudin De Woody.
Out of Bounds: Art from the Collection of Driek and Michael Zirinsky. Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA.
Pretty Tough: Contemporary Story telling, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Curated by Monica Ramirez Montagut. Ridgefield, CT.
Bazgasht- Traditional methods and modern practice: Revival of miniature painting from the sub continent: Art Gallery of Mississauga, Mississauga, ON
2008
Portrait of a Museum, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA
Distant Shores: Cultural Exchange in Contemporary Art, Curated by Deborah Disston. Mclninch Art Gallery, Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, NH
Master Prints; Curated by Peter Wayne Lewis, Sunshine International Museum, Beijing, China
2007
Global Feminism; Davis Museum and Cultural center, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
Global Feminism Remix; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Global Feminism; Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for feminist art, Brooklyn Museum. New York, NY
Home Coming; Pakistan National Art Gallery, Islamabad, Pakistan
2006
Banquet; Feast for the Senses, curated by Chip Tom, Asia Pacific Museum, Pasadena, CA
Holy Land: Diaspora and the Desert; Heard museum, Phoenix, AZ
Threads of Memory, curated by Margaret Mathews Berenson, Dorsky Gallery, Long Island City, NY
2005
Time’s Arrow: Twelve Random Thoughts on Beauty, The Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
The Observed and Envisioned; Davis Museum and cultural center, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
2004
Visualizing Diaspora: Constructing Self, Gallery Artists Studio Projects, Brookline, MA
I Want to Take you Higher; McKenzie Fie Arts, New York, NY
For the Birds, Artspace, New Haven, CT
Playing with a loaded gun, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany
Masala Diversity & Democracy in South Asian Art, William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut
2003
Playing with a loaded gun, Apex Art, New York, NY
Contemporary Miniatures: India/Pakistan, The Fine Art Resource, Berlin, Germany
2002
Get in Line, George Adams Gallery, New York, NY
Artists in Residence, McColl center for visual Art, Charlotte, NC
Painting in Boston: From 1950-2000, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park; Lincoln, MA
India: Contemporary Responses, The Art Complex Museum; Duxbury, MA
2001
HOME? Crosscurrents in Contemporary South Asian/American Art, The Brush Art Gallery; Lowell, MA
Home and the World, India Center for Art and Culture; New York, NY
2000
Material Revelations: Variations on COLLAGE, Fuller Museum of Art; Brockton, MA
Palimpsest, Fuller Museum of Art; Brockton, MA
The Figure: Another Side of Modernism from 1950 to the Present, New house Center for Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor Cultural Center; Staten Island, NY
2000 Annual Exhibition, DeCordova Museum & Sculpture Park; Lincoln, MA
2010
Dartmouth College; Artist in Residence, Hanover, NH
2009
Distinguished achievement as an artist, Massachusetts College of Art Alumni Association, Boston, MA
Artadia Boston, fund for Art and Dialogue, New York, NY.
2006
Maud Morgan Prize, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Joan Mitchell Foundation; New York, NY
2002
Central Michigan State University; Stephen L. Barstow Artist in Residence; Mt. Pleasant, MI
McColl Center for Visual Arts; Artist in Residence; Charlotte, NC
2001
Canada Council for the Arts; Ontario, Canada
1999
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; Boston, MA; Artist in Residence
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; james and Audrey Foster Prize; Boston, MA
1998
Saint Botolph Club Foundation Grant for Painters; Boston, MA
1997
ART/ OMI; Artist in Residence; New York, NY
Edward Albee Foundation; Artist in Residence; New York, NY
Joan Mitchell Foundation award for Painters; New York, NY
1996
P.E.O International Peace Scholarship; Des Moines, IA