Backlogged Dreams

Life shapes artists—and inevitably reshapes their work, adapting to new experiences, insights, and ways of engaging with the world. Kaylan Buteyn's evolution perfectly exemplifies this journey. She worked with digital photography, transitioned to painting, during her MFA studies, and now embraces mixed media. Her richly layered compositions are currently featured in her show, Backlogged Dreams, using materials like paint, found quilt pieces, fabric, canvas, and ink.

Buteyn's practice is informed by her experience as a parent to three children—navigating limited spare time—and a growing attraction to textiles for their ability to let her "insert [herself] into conversations that have happened before [her]." She reflects, "Textile practices have long histories of people working with them in powerful ways, and I like to consider the relationship between those legacies and how I can work within them and subvert them to make something new." Her work acts as a portal between past and present, weaving memory and material into tangible connections with both personal and collective histories.

The unique space of the Annex Gallery added a new dimension to this exhibition. For the first time, Buteyn considered how a viewer experiences a body of work when moving linearly through a space. "I knew I wanted to create a portal-like piece that would invite the viewer to 'see' the work in a specific way," she explains. Although the unconventional hallway setting was "initially challenging," she ultimately embraced it, finding inspiration rather than discouragement.

Buteyn is thrilled with the final results of her show and hopes that the portal concept at the heart of her work will help viewers connect with their memories and spark hope for new futures.