Opening in the second-floor galleries on Thursday, March 30 is The Real Unreal, Faiza Butt's first solo exhibition with the gallery. The artist's reflective compositions draw from the natural world, the human form, and quotidian objects. The works are finished with historic gilt frames to complete the reference of her work's appeal as an 'object' of historic value.

Butt does not use the human body or portrait in the classical tradition of the 'figure.' The contrast between poverty and affluence is often the backdrop for Butt's rationale of global unrest—luscious country scenes inspired by the Golden Age of Dutch painting and images of her children on iPhones are the cornerstones of The Real Unreal. 

In her own words: 
"As I rediscover the joy of painting, I visited the golden age of Dutch painting. The liberation from the Spanish rule, gave new energy to the Dutch art tradition and the secular fields of art such as portrait, still life and landscape thrived.  I was particularly fascinated with the genre of 'Menagerie painting' where the natural world, acts out human morality, symbolically. The landscape in which exotic birds act out coded and subvert acts, was a spiritual space laced with evidence of Dutch interaction and trade with the wider world."