Brian Butler is a Los Angeles based artist, filmmaker and musician.
Brian Butler’s interests and practices with the occult, with its often hidden meanings, function as the underlying narrative of his work. The occult is that which is hidden: the supernatural, mystical, and magical. Butler, who has communed and consulted with occultists and magicians from Europe to South America, believes that magick is conducive to and complements all manner of creativity, helping practitioners access different parts of the mind as well as spiritual realms. He is a collaborator with Kenneth Anger in both Technicolor Skull as well as numerous film and exhibition projects. Butler’s recent writing has centered extensively on the occult, publishing in Disinformation’s Book of Lies as well as working on numerous documentaries and experimental films exploring the subject.
His work has been included in Projections at Roberts & Tilton, Los Angeles; Bright Morning Star curated by Natxo Checa at Galeria Zé dos Bois, Lisbon, Portugal; and the Athens Biennale. His films have screened at the Tate Modern and the Cannes Film Festival. He recently mounted solo exhibitions in Los Angeles at LA><ART and Annie Wharton Los Angeles as well as a performance in collaboration with Kenneth Anger at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). As a musician, he has recorded and/or performed music with artists such as VON LMO, Rozz Williams (Christian Death), and Moving Units.