Yuan Butler

Contact Information

About

Biography

Yuan Butler is an educator and practicing artist whose work and teaching are grounded in the belief that art is a way of seeing, experiencing, and making meaning. In both her studio practice and classroom, she is interested in how individuals engage with uncertainty, perception, and transformation. She encourages students to develop confidence through exploration, fostering an environment where observation, experimentation, and personal experience become central to learning.

Butler has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, including at Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (Atlanta), Coca-Cola Headquarters (Atlanta), the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art, Warnes Contemporary (New York), Woodstock Art Center (Atlanta), Shug Gallery (UK), Mason Fine Art (Atlanta), and Huifeng Art Museum (Shanghai, China), Spruill Gallery (Dunwoody) among others.

Education

  • Master's – painting – Savannah College of Art and Design
  • Bachelor's – English language and literature education – Changsha Science and Technology University

Academic Interests

  • Ambiguity in art
  • Color theory
  • Modernism and abstraction

Distinctions

  • Presidential Award of Residency as SCAD Alumni Amelia Ambassador, 2025
  • Award for Excellence by a Part-time faculty in School of Liberal Arts at Georgia Gwinnett College, 2025
  • Certificate of Honor as an outstanding instructor, in recognition of active participation in "China-Us" integration joint exhibition of excellent students' works, 2025
  • Grants and Cecile Adler Cliffer Memorial Cutting-Edge Award in the 135th Annual NAWA exhibition, New York, US, 2024
  • Honor of Excellent Instructor, FSU-HUTB Undergraduates Summer drawing course, Changsha, China, 2024
  • Medal of Creativity, "Power to the Patient," Poster competition, NY, 2022

Publications

  • Essay "Diamagnetic Suspension", ChinaTribu, Atlanta 2023

Presentations

  • "Art in Life", CREATE Conference, Georgia Gwinnett College, GA 2026
  • "Color as Experience", CREATE Conference, Georgia Gwinnett College, GA 2025 
  • Artist/Gallerist Panel talk, Savannah College of Art and Design, GA, 2025
  • Lecture, "Abstract Art", Savannah College of Art and Design, GA, 2023

Press

  • Interview, New Visionary Magazine, NY 2026
  • New Visionary Podcast, NY 2026
  • Create! Magazine, Of Land and Longing, NY 2025
  • New American Paintings, MFA Issue 171, Boston 2025
  • Visionary Art Collective, New York, NY, 2022
  • All She Makes, New York, NY, 2021
  • I Like Your Work Podcast, Boston, MA, 2020

Public Collection

  • “Four Seasons” painting series, Permanent Collection, SCAD Museum of Art, 2026

Professional Affiliations

  • College Art Association