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Photo courtesy of Annie Butrus.
Mountain Brook’s Annie Butrus has built a successful 25-year career as an artist, and she most recently had work on display in November at the Palazzo Bembo, European Cultural Centre, Venice, Italy.
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Photos by Sarah Owens.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a noninvasive imaging technique that measures brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow. Butrus uses fMRI images to create her paintings.
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Photos by Sarah Owens.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a noninvasive imaging technique that measures brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow. Butrus uses fMRI images to create her paintings.
Art lovers from around the world gather in Venice every other year to experience a months long appreciation of avant-garde and contemporary art. This year, Mountain Brook’s Annie Butrus was one of the artists whose work was on display in the world-renowned exhibit.
Butrus was invited by art curator Shannon Morris to participate in the 2024 European Cultural Centre’s “Personal Structures” exhibition, which coincided with the Venice Biennale. The Venice Biennale is an international cultural exhibition hosted biannually in Venice, Italy, by the Biennale Foundation since 1895. It includes events for art, contemporary dance, architecture, cinema and theater.
“I said no at first, because it was really intimidating. And then I called back right away and said, ‘No, yes, I'll do it,’” Butrus said. “Each time she's invited me to participate in a show, I've been just sort of putting together ideas for a new body of work. My work is a little bit serial in that it tends to build on itself, and so similar ideas, but there will be some new pieces. And this was definitely newer, so it was like Volume Two of the work that I've been doing for 25 years, since I've lived down here.”
Butrus received her master’s of fine arts from the University of Notre Dame in painting and printmaking and her bachelor’s in studio art from Wellesley College. Her work can be found in public and private collections such as Art Bridges, Children’s of Alabama, UAB/AEIVA and Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center in Jacksonville.
She and her husband, Greg, a native of Mountain Brook, moved to Homewood in 1999 and then bought a house in Mountain Brook in 2002, where they have raised their four children.
Her most recent work, “Internal: External”, was shown in the Venice exhibit from April 20 to Nov. 24 in the historical venues of Palazzo Bembo hotel, Palazzo Mora and Marinaressa Gardens. It focuses on the relationships between internal and external landscapes inspired by nature and brain mapping.
To create her work, Butrus traces shadows of trees, flora and fauna while in nature. She then does the same with a brain map.
“I use fMRI images, so this captures the emotional. So all of those different colors are emotional markers,” she said. “And so what I love about this process that I'm interested in, is that this enables me to trace a person's emotions at that moment in time, and then I merge it with the landscape tracings.”
Butrus and her long-time friend and collaborator, Mountain Brook native Michelle Forman, traveled to Venice during the show and filmed a talk about the power of art and their work together.
Forman’s collaboration is an integral part of Butrus’ work Butrus credits her for being a sounding board and support over the years.
Moving forward, Annie Butrus is working on a collection that will be on display in 2025 in the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine in Bentonville, Ark.
To learn more about Butrus and her work, visit akbutrus.com/index.php.
