Artists Prepare To Show At BUTTER

“The King Is Black,” by Gary Gee.Photo by Tony Valainis

ARTIST GARY GEE’S handcast “The King Is Black” ceramic skull glints in a hematite and black diamond luster with its crowning glory accentuated in gold. Gee is a member of The Eighteen, a collective of civically engaged Black visual artists who created our city’s Black Lives Matter mural on Indiana Avenue last summer. The group was set to exhibit their work at Newfields before pulling out after the museum published a job description that did not align with the artists’ ethos. Now, Gee joins around 30 Black artists to showcase and sell their work—including this piece—at BUTTER, an inaugural Art Basel–esque event hosted by GANGGANG at the Stutz Business Center over Labor Day weekend.