Major exhibition surveys three decades of artist’s radical ceramics
February 14–July 26, 2026
SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY (January 13, 2026) — The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College presents Kathy Butterly: Assume Yes, a major exhibition of approximately fifty works by one of the most influential and inventive sculptors working in ceramics today. On view from February 14 through July 26, 2026, the exhibition spans more than thirty years of Butterly’s practice, from early sculptures dating to the mid-1990s to recent works, offering a rare opportunity to trace the evolution of an artist who has transformed the language of contemporary ceramics.
For nearly four decades, Kathy Butterly has created striking sculptures with a powerful individuality, using clay and glaze to paint in three dimensions. Known for their small scale and extraordinary detail, her works combine technical virtuosity with humor, sensuality, and formal daring. Butterly pushes porcelain and earthenware to their expressive and physical limits, producing objects that oscillate between abstraction and the body, spontaneity and precision, seriality and difference.
Despite their modest size, Butterly’s sculptures are immersive worlds—dense with complexity, wit, and tactile intensity. Her practice reflects a sustained engagement with the histories of abstraction and color, while radically reimagining ceramics as a site of experimentation, intuition, and emotional charge.
Kathy Butterly: Assume Yes is organized by Ian Berry, Dayton Director of the Tang Teaching Museum, and is presented as part of the museum’s 25th anniversary year. The exhibition builds on a long relationship between Butterly and the Tang: Berry organized a focused solo show of her work at the museum in 2006, and her work anchored The Jewel Thief exhibition in 2010. Four works by the artist held in the Tang’s permanent collection are included in the exhibition.
“I started a conversation with Kathy Butterly about her work more twenty years ago,” Berry said. “Her sculpture continues to surprise and expand, and it is an honor to bring these masterpieces together in one room. They reward close looking and sustained attention, revealing how free creativity and experimentation can continually reinvent a medium.”
The exhibition will be accompanied by the publication of a major monograph on Butterly’s work later in the spring. The catalogue features contributions by Glenn Adamson, Ian Berry, Forrest Gander, Theodora Bocanegra Lang, Nancy Princenthal, and Elena Sisto.
Public Programs
The Tang presents a series of events in conjunction with the exhibition. All are free and open to the public.
Saturday, February 14, 5 pm
Opening Reception and Conversation with the Artist
Join Dayton Director Ian Berry in conversation with Kathy Butterly to celebrate the opening of the exhibition.
Thursday, March 26, Noon
Curator’s Tour of Kathy Butterly: Assume Yes
Ian Berry leads an exhibition tour.
Thursday, April 9, 6 pm
Dunkerley Dialogue with Kathy Butterly
A public conversation between the artist and a Skidmore College faculty member (to be announced).
For updates and additional programs, visit tang.skidmore.edu.
The exhibition is free and open to the public. The Tang Teaching Museum, located on the Skidmore College campus at 815 N. Broadway in Saratoga Springs, New York, is open Tuesday–Sunday, noon–5 pm, with extended hours until 9 pm on Thursdays. For more information, call 518-580-8080 or visit tang.skidmore.edu.
About Skidmore College
Founded in 1903, Skidmore College is a highly selective, private liberal arts college of about 2,700 students located in the dynamic town of Saratoga Springs, New York. Consistently ranked as a top liberal arts college by U.S. News & World Report, The Princeton Review, Forbes, and more, Skidmore has also been recognized for its innovation, value, and sustainability efforts. Skidmore fosters academic and personal excellence — all driven by a belief that Creative Thought Matters. Its comprehensive array of opportunities encompasses more than 40 bachelor’s degree programs, including popular offerings in business, psychology, and the creative and performing arts; competitive NCAA Division III athletics; world-class facilities; and hands-on civic engagement and career development resources.
About the Tang Teaching Museum
The Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College is a pioneer of interdisciplinary exploration and learning. A cultural anchor of New York’s Capital Region, the Tang’s approach has become a model for college and university art museums across the country — with exhibition programs that bring together visual and performing arts with interdisciplinary ideas from history, economics, biology, dance, and physics, to name just a few. The Tang has one of the most rigorous faculty-engagement initiatives in the nation, and a robust publication and touring exhibition program that extends the museum’s reach far beyond its walls. The Tang Teaching Museum’s award-winning building, designed by architect Antoine Predock, serves as a visual metaphor for the convergence of art and ideas. The Museum is open to the public Tuesday–Sunday, noon–5 p.m., with extended hours until 9 p.m. Thursday.