Meet The Artist
Late Stories : Featuring Melanie Bernier & Brian Butler
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Come and experience storytelling through art, where ancient traditions meet modern expressions. Enjoy the unique blend of textile art and whimsical graphics.
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Melanie Bernier :
Immerse yourself in Bernier's intimate creations that draw from folklore, ancient archetypes, and pagan magic. Through hand-felted wool and pieced cloth—sourced from thrifted and hand-dyed materials—Bernier explores the transformative journey of self-redefinition and the radical history of fiber craft.
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Brian Butler:
Discover the charm and eccentricities of New England shore life through Butler's playful graphics. This season, Butler introduces the delightful "Putter Pals", three recurring characters that bring his coastal narratives to life.
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Melanie Bernier
@melsmoviemagic
MELANIE BERNIER is an artist, musician, beach lifeguard, and professor. She is currently the Windgate Emerging Craft Artist and Visiting Faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University.
She primarily makes fiber-based work, video, performance, and punk albums.
Bernier is a committed activist and this has landed her in handcuffs once or twice. She has collaborated on public art projects including Punk Rock Aerobics, New Craft Artists in Action, Bardo Gallery, and Girls Rock Campaign. She has done activist work with Queer Sport Split, Mass Equality, Extinction Rebellion, and Food Not Bombs.
Bernier has shown work at art venues such as the Museum of Arts and Design (NYC), Dirt Palace (Providence), and Evening Hours (NYC). She has toured nationally with bands including Boston Cream, the Fagettes, and the Barbazons. Her work has been reviewed by Art in America, Creative Time Reports, Vice, and Maximum Rock n’ Roll, among others.
BRIAN BUTLER
@Upperhandart
Brian Butler relocated to Miami from Massachusetts 13 years ago. The move was timed perfectly to the smash-hit single "I'm in Miami Bitch". A phrase that adorned every South Beach gift shop, and ear-wormed its way into the national psyche. This phenomenon along with a history of exploring Cape Cod gift shops and mini golf courses conditioned the artist to frame life through a lens of leisure. Live where other's vacation. Build the place others wish to be. Butler embraces the visual language of the souvenir. Just like the pennants of the past, his flags exist as proof. By retrofitting fragments of regional identity, his work carries the same power of verification, but with a curated emphasis on the rough edges, the qualities that make it weird. By paying tribute to these enduring monuments, roadside traditions and homegrown lore, he spreads his message of leisure. Highlighting pieces that individually hold a complex variety of purpose, but together represent the strength of forging new paths, and resisting the eroding tides of optimization and homogeneity.
