Media coverage

Chinese Media seems to really like my story.

This video was from 2 serious looking state news via this site: http://www.shtv.net.cn/nInfo/View.aspx?id=20178

This from an arts website : http://www.peoplearts.cn/News/News_57827.html

So, I did something a little bit sneaky at the NGV.

I really should update this blog more often, but I've been busy on holidays, eating raw licorice root, and visiting the National Gallery of Victoria 

Then after I did this, I let a few friends know. Now some media have reported about it. It started with the Sydney Morning Herald, then the Daily Mail, and spread from there. I think this one written in German and this Chinese one are my favourites to run through the google translating program and read.

After about a week of deafening silence from the NGV, I called to ask if they had my painting in their lost and found department. 24 hours later their lost and found department called back and asked me to come and collect it.

I did. I wasn't spoken to by anyone from gallery staff. They just handed it back and sent me on my way.

A great opening night

Thank you to all who came to my exhibition opening. It was a great success, and I even managed to sell over half the show.

There are a few good paintings left. Please let me know if you are keen.

High Brow or Street Savvy

They say it's impossible to please everyone, especially in the art world... but I just might be able to do it!

Behold!  Both types of commercials!

One for the hip movers and shakers, the taste-makers with the fingers on the pulse of what's cool and what's stool.

And then there's a second commercial for the more refined and discerning art aficionado. The collector with both highly cultured tastes and a massive wad of cash in their pockets ready to shell out for the most important art produced in the Australia since Howard Arkley had a go.

For you're viewing pleasure..

Warning: Do not watch the ad from the category that does not describe you. I can't be held responsible for whatever it might cause.

For the Hip Groovy Set

For the Finer Art Connoisseurs 

Forthcoming Exhibition - 28th June - the press release

Former recipient of the now-defunct Itchiball Prize for Bad Art Ben Butcher once again puts two-dollar-shop paintbrush to hard-rubbish-scavenged canvas in his typically enthusiastic style capturing mundane and glorious moments, weird dreams, and re-imagined barroom anecdotes.

A retired Black Caviar earns some petty cash by acting as a jousting horse at a medieval fair while Ned Kelly sells balloons to kids.

Vladimir Putin joins Ivan The Terrible in throwing dogs and a spare dolphin from the Kremlin tower at Pussy Riot.

Julian Assange and his schoolyard friend Paul Cregan using tractor tyres as an army tank and a stick as a cannon.

Oh, and of course there are unicorns and rainbows.

After selling out his 2013 exhibition at the Old Bar gallery, Butcher has returned with a new collection of works fusing his trademark colour palette and unique perspective in a painstakingly-rendered display of exuberant jouissance. Butcher is a Melbourne musician, photographer, and teacher whose work has been described as 'like Sidney Nolan on acid' and addresses questions like 'what does God do in his spare time?' and “how come Tolstoy spent his whole life looking for the secret of universal happiness while David Walsh managed to find it quite quickly?”

Ben Butcher’s Art Show can be viewed at the upstairs gallery at The Old Bar (74-76 Johnston Street, Fitzroy) for a strictly limited time.

Opens : 6pm, Tuesday 28^th June

Final Day: Saturday 2^nd July

All enquiries, contact Ben

e. long.exposure@gmail.com

p. 0408 762461

w. http://australiasworstartist.blogspot.com.au/

I'm Having An Exhibition...again!

It's hard to believe that someone who's constantly being told they're the worst would bother putting themselves through the humiliation again... but here I go!

The exhibition is only on for 5 days!  Don't blink, or you'll miss it.

The All Important Whisky Page

As an "artist" I am notoriously difficult to work with. Often I ask to be paid in part with whisky, but not whiskey.

I ask that buyers of my paintings buy me a great whisky that I either love or have not tried before, and so this page is here to help you, the potential buyer of one of my paintings, with some guiding information to help you buy me a whisky I will be glad to receive.

In general, I would rather be given a bottle that:
* I have not tried before
* is heavily peated (or smoky flavoured)
* is really yummy

Whisky I would like to try
Ardbeg - Corryvreckan
Ardbeg - Supernova
Ardbeg - Ardbog
Lagavulin - 12 year old
Laphroaig - PX Cask (available via duty free only)
Laphroaig - An Cuan Mor (available via duty free only)
Laphroaig - 10 CASK STRENGTH (not to be confused with the regular 10 y.o.)
Kilchoman - 2007 or 2008
Port Ellen - (anything)
Hakushu Heavily Peated

Whisky I've had before and could happily have again
Bruichladdich - Octomore (any version)
Caol ila - Cask Strength
Caol ila - 12
Laphroaig - Quarter Cask
Big Peat - either Christmas Edition or normal version
Lagavilin - 16 year old
Bruichladdich Pot Charlotte - Peat Project


Whisky I have tried and do not need to try again
Johnnie Walker - Green
Talisker - 10
Talisker - Storm


If you are still unsure, print this page out and take it to your whisky specialist and let them help you.

Cheers!

New Work : Boundless Plains To Share

"For those who've come across the seas
We've boundless plains to share"
These are lyrics to the often unsung second verse of our national anthem Advance Australia Fair.

This painting will be for sale this Tuesday night at an art show to raise money for the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. They are a fantastic and very necessary organisation. Please lend them your support.

The exhibition called Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is, and is on show for a very limited time at The Old Bar, in Fitzroy.

Coach Savage And Her Unicorns - painting sale this week!!

This new painting will be sold this week, to raise money for the mighty Old Bar Unicorns football team's 2015 campaign. 

A prominent Melbourne critic has recently written...

"Local artist, Ben Butcher, has (rather unfairly) been afforded the misleading moniker,  "Australia's Worst Artist". This title does little justice to the scope and aesthetic ambition exemplified in Butcher's latest work, "Coach Savage And Her Unicorns". 

Butcher thrusts a blended indoor/outdoor scenario at the viewer, as a black leather-clad Cash Savage, The Unicorn's coach, has her minions literally chained to her, just as she (and by proxy, the team) are connected by invisible tendrils to the bar itself. 

Team supporters will recognise Mapo's brilliant mark over the head of Old Bar figurehead, Joel Morrison; whilst a lonely figure facing the bar seems somehow to be psychically pulled, guitar-in-hand, towards the footy oval, along with the viewer's eye. Amidst all this, the artist (presumably) wields a beer and bat, as if momentarily forgetting the nature of the drunken game being celebrated by his team-mates, in a veritable maelstrom of strong, primary colours. A tiny penguin divides the frame in the foreground, as if to affirm what followers of Butcher's art have long suspected - forget about Australia, Ben Butcher is quite possibly the Worst Artist in the World! And more power to him, and the pub football team he represents." - Matt Gleeson

This painting will be available for viewing and sale from 7pm, Tuesday 24th March at the Old Bar Gallery, 74 Johnston Street Fitzroy, Vic, Australia. 

Julian Assange and Paul Cregan at Goolmangar Primary School

(click to embiggen)

Paul was telling me how as a kid he went to school with Julian Assange.

Here is a scene of them in tractor tyres for an army tank, with a stick as a cannon...  I don't know who the two kids playing basketball are.

Hiccups are an attention seeking device - serious medical theory

Medical Theory  : Hiccups are linked to the need for social attention. (or, Hiccups are an attention seeking device.)

I can't be arsed writing a proper paper so I'm publishing the idea here.

But basically, I propose that as an infant, hiccups are the one thing that gets you adoring attention without you being blamed or accused of doing it on purpose. You hiccup, then everyone goes "ooowww.. isn't that cute". Free attention gained!

In my own research conducted by and on myself, I have found that hiccups are far more difficult to get rid of, until the point of time where someone notices the hiccups. Then I can get rid of them far more easily.

As a life-long hiccupper (or perhaps hiccuppee) I have tried every method to get rid of bouts of hiccups, and although they have worked for a while, eventually that method was no longer effective. I guess the novelty had worn off for spectators. "Oh he's doing that thing again". Attention wane!

The "cures" that are more elaborate and comical or complex and enjoyable for outsiders to witness, are usually the more successful. It has been said (by people, needs citation) that it's because the brain is working hard on the complex task that distracts the body from hiccuping, but I also reckon the added attention from drinking a cup of water upside down, whilst standing on one leg may also help satisfy the human in question and diminish the need to hiccup. Attention gained!

I call upon the medical community to do some research and prove my theory... but in the meantime, remember where you heard it first.

p.s. I googled it once, and there didn't seem to be anyone else claiming this idea...

the only thing worse than being talked about...

...is being panned in the media for "having standards"

Ricky French has written about MONA in the Big Issue this week, and has used me.... (ME?!) as a barometer as to how bad he thinks MONA is.

Well, we'll see about that!
(loosely hints at an exhibition yet to be organised, now that I have about 20 new paintings... mumbling off into the distance...)

Self Portrait - Icon Style

As the artist's ego gets out of control, he has elevated himself to saint-like status. What a wanker!

4ZZZ Happy Fest Benefit Auction Painting

Time to get happy! Mainstream radio cops a beating while the Z banana man broadcasts the good times. B-dudes breakin, Ned Kelly gets carried away with joyful balloons, Black Caviar finds a post-retirement job, and even the Angry Penguin enjoys a balloon.

This painting will be in Brisbane this weekend and will be sold at auction as a part of the 4ZZZ radio fundraiser Happy Fest. 

Click here to go to the ebay auction page and bid now! 

Come down, show your love for community radio, and be the first person in Brisbane to own an original Ben Butcher painting! 

Black Caviar Rides Again - Art Prize Entry

I have entered this new painting, Black Caviar Rides Again in to the prestigious Inglis Equine Art Prize.
For those who have been living under a rock, Black Caviar has recently retired after being undefeated, 25 sprint races...champion! Now days, Black Caviar is available for parties, medieval fairs, and having sex with other awesome horses.

Artist Statement

Sometimes the typed word is not enough to broadcast the more vital messages that need to expressed.

And it is at this time when our society so badly needs to think about and discuss this critical issue.

Please watch and consider carefully, Thank you

   

 hurry up with my damn croissants!

Daft Punk Play The Wee Waa Agricultural Show

Tonight, Daft Punk launch their album called Random Access Memories in the Northern New South Wales town of Wee Waa. Here's the very first image of them playing at their agricultural show, which also happens to be on this weekend.

Dogs Vs Pussies (Pussy Riot)

Ivan the Terrible and Vladamir Putin throwing dogs and dolphin at Pussy Riot as a couple of members flee Russia. This image is included in the recent A4 Book publication.

New Work - Spiritual Jock Flies High

I don't often do commissioned paintings, however I shared the vision so closely with my client that I agreed to doing this, which I completed just last week.

Of course, commissioned jobs require clients to pay me more, and to give me finer whisky... 

New Work: The Neumeier-Kidney God

Here's non other than kraut rock legend Mani Neumeier and local psychedelic master Paul Kidney holding aloft my painting that became the gig poster for a recent Mani and the Paul Kidney Experience performance...