ButchAnthonyHERO

THE ZOO GALLERY TO HOST SPECIAL EVENT WITH ACCLAIMED ARTIST BUTCH ANTHONY June 27th

June 20, 2023,

The Zoo Gallery, a prominent art venue in Grayton Beach, is excited to announce a unique event with Butch Anthony, the creator of the Museum of Wonder and The World’s First Drive Thru Museum. This exclusive engagement will take place on Tuesday, June 27, from 4 to 6pm.

Photo by Andrew Lambdin Moore

Butch Anthony, an Alabama native, has been a transformative figure in the contemporary art scene. With a background in zoology, geology, and biology from Auburn University, Anthony has melded these influences into his distinctive artistic genre, Intertwanglelism.

From constructing a log cabin at the age of 14 that later became the first Museum of Wonder, to building The World’s First Drive-Thru Museum in 2014, Anthony’s creations are a testament to his ingenuity and artistic prowess. His museum, a modern cabinet of curiosities, houses art, artifacts, and intriguing objects such as the world’s largest gallstone and a footprint believed to belong to Sasquatch.

Anthony’s work has been showcased across the United States and abroad, with features in esteemed venues including the Akron Museum of Art, Wiregrass Museum of Art, Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, and the Black Rat Project. His work has been highlighted on the television series American Pickers and in publications such as The New York Times and Garden and Gun.

The Zoo Gallery, a long supporter of unique and vibrant artists, is thrilled to host this event for local art enthusiasts. This is an extraordinary opportunity to experience the world of Butch Anthony and his diverse body of work. The Zoo Gallery invites you to join us on June 27 to celebrate this unique artist and his profound impact on contemporary art.

ABOUT the zoo gallery | grayton beach, FL

The Zoo Gallery, established in 1979, is a premier art gallery located in Grayton Beach, Florida. With a focus on supporting and showcasing unique artists, The Zoo Gallery is committed to promoting diverse artistic expressions and creating engaging cultural experiences for the local community.

ABOUT the museum of wonder

The Museum of Wonder is a modern-day cabinet of curiosities filled with art, artifacts, and found or gifted objects including the world’s largest gallstone and an actual footprint from sasquatch!

At the age of fourteen, Butch built a one-room log cabin that became a workshop for his many creations and eventually the first incarnation of the Museum of Wonder. As his skills developed, Butch began to build and fashion furniture, sculptures, and many other works of art and constructions. The Museum soon became too small and too popular for the log cabin to contain.

In 2014, Butch built The World’s First Drive-Thru Museum out of shipping containers. It sits off U.S. HWY 431 in Seale, Alabama and exhibits a rotating display of Butch’s handcrafted designs and curiosities for the wonderment of visitors and passerbys alike.

ABOUT butch anthony

Butch Anthony is a contemporary, self-taught artist, maker, and collector of objects and antiques. He grew up on his family’s 80-acre property in Seale, Alabama, where he lives and works today in a home he built by hand. He is the creator of the Museum of Wonder, The World’s First Drive Thru Museum, and The Possum Trot.

In the early 1990’s Butch started creating art using various media and techniques, crafting them into one-of-a-kind-masterpieces. Throughout a career spanning decades, Butch created a specific genre of work called Intertwanglelism, (inter = to mix; twangle = a distinctive way of speaking, thinking, behaving, assessing; and ism = a theory). Butch attended Auburn University in the mid 1980’s, where he studied zoology, geology, and biology. While there, he enrolled in a comparative anatomy class that he would later attribute to the use of veins and bones in his art.

Butch’s work has been featured in solo, group, and juried exhibitions across the United States and abroad in venues such as the Akron Museum of Art (Akron, Ohio), Wiregrass Museum of Art (Dothan, Alabama), Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art (Charleston, South Carolina), and the Black Rat Project (London, England). He has been featured on the television series American Pickers and his work in publications including The New York Times, Garden and Gun, and Hyperallergic. Butch was also included in Alabama Creates: 200 Years of Art and Artists, a book which showcases master artists from the state.