Deborah Butterfield
Sculpture
July 2, 2026 - August 22, 2026
Greg Kucera Gallery presents our 15th exhibition of new bronze sculptures by Deborah Butterfield.
This new collection features a diverse range of works, from delicate pieces composed of branch and leaf shapes to a large sculpture incorporating thick sticks and muscular chunks of wood.
Since 1980, Butterfield has constructed her signature horse sculptures from found plant materials, which are then cast in bronze at the Walla Walla Foundry in Washington.
The casting process is exceptionally detailed, involving individual molds for each piece of wood. These elements are encased in heat-resistant plaster and baked until the wood burns away, leaving a cavity for molten bronze.
Once the bronze pieces are cast—capturing even the finest wood grain—the components are reassembled and welded. Finally, Butterfield applies specific patinas to the bronze to replicate the appearance of wood.
BIOGRAPHY
Deborah Butterfield was born in San Diego, California in 1949. She received her BA and MFA from UC Davis. Butterfield's work has been featured in over 50 museum exhibitions. In 2023-24 the artist had a retrospective exhibition, P.S. These Are Not Horses, at Manetti Shrem Museum, Davis, CA. She has had one-person exhibitions at: Bellevue Arts Museum; Bellevue, WA, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu; Denver Botanic Gardens; Tucson Museum of Art; Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA; Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ; Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN; Lowe Art Museum, Coral Gables, FL; Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV and Norton Museum of Art, Palm Beach, FL; San Diego Museum of Art; Tucson Museum of Art; University Art Museum, University of Louisiana, Lafayette.
Butterfield’s work is included in the permanent collections of many major museums, including: The Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Baltimore Museum of Art; Brooklyn Museum; Brooklyn Museum; The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu; Dallas Art Museum; Denver Art Museum; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Milwaukee Art Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO; Palm Springs Museum of Art; San Diego Museum of Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Seattle Art Museum; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.