EXTROFLESSED ARTWORK & ABSTRACT SCULPTURE
Extroflessed artworks and abstract sculptures conceived for architecture, hospitality, and high-end interiors.
The Heritage
Alessandro Butera was born in Palermo in 1971. His formation within the art world began in 1992 as an art dealer, developing a deep understanding of artistic language, quality, and market dynamics through the works of leading figures of postwar Italian art — including Franco Angeli, Tano Festa, Renato Guttuso, and Mario Schifano. A formative path that shaped his vision and his understanding of the artwork as a cultural, spatial, and architectural presence.
In 2014, he founded Alessandro Butera Studio, a sculptural research atelier dedicated to extroflessed artwork and contemporary sculpture.
The Research
The Studio's practice develops within the legacy of Italian Spatialism — in dialogue with Lucio Fontana and Agostino Bonalumi — through the form of the extroflessed artwork: a three-dimensional wall sculpture that emerges from the surface as an architectural organism shaped by light, shadow, and spatial tension. Each extroflessed artwork is entirely handcrafted. In select works, integrated LED light becomes a constitutive element of the piece itself. Every work is unique.
Alongside its sculptural production, the Studio develops large-scale abstract paintings — chromatically intense works, rich in gestural instinctiveness, conceived for minimal luxury environments where colour becomes emotional architecture.
The Vision
Light does not illuminate an extroflessed artwork — it reveals it. Every fold, every surface, every shadow cast on the wall is a different reading of the same form. Alessandro Butera conceives his extroflessed artworks as living architectural presences: they change with the hour of the day, with the angle of the observer, with the quality of the light in the room. An extroflessed artwork is never finished — it continues to unfold in the space it inhabits.
Selected Commissions
Over more than a decade of practice, the Studio has produced a significant body of extroflessed artworks and sculptures across five continents, developing a dual channel of presence: B2B luxury commissions with architects, interior designers, galleries, and international hospitality groups, and acquisitions by prestigious private collectors.
Among the Studio's collectors is internationally renowned photographer Stefano Galuzzi, with whom Alessandro Butera developed a significant artistic collaboration, culminating in an artist's door — featured in the article "Vertigo" in Door no.1, the design magazine of the La Repubblica publishing group. At the entrance of the Gio Ponti building in Milan — visited by architecture students from around the world — a large red extroflessed artwork by Alessandro Butera stands, commissioned by Galuzzi himself.
Alessandro Butera's extroflessed artworks appeared in an Elle Moda editorial (October 2025). The Studio's works have featured in Italian television productions, including a campaign by the international insurance group Wefox. The Studio has taken part in international art fairs in Monte Carlo and Bologna.
Institutional Recognition
In 2023, the City of Palermo hosted Alessandro Butera's anthological exhibition — "Viaggio alla ricerca della bellezza" — at the former church of San Mattia ai Crociferi, under the patronage of the Mayor's Ceremonial Office. The inauguration was attended by Giampiero Cannella, then Councillor for Culture and Deputy Mayor of Palermo. The exhibition was documented by Balarm, a leading cultural publication in Palermo.
The Place
Alessandro Butera Studio is based in Trabia, in the province of Palermo — a village of ancient aristocratic heritage, home to the historic Castello Lanza Branciforte. Once the residence of Prince Raimondo Lanza di Trabia — confidant of Rita Hayworth, business partner of Aristotle Onassis, and one of the most legendary figures of twentieth-century Sicilian nobility — the castle was chosen by Dolce & Gabbana as the closing venue of their worldwide Alta Moda event in 2017, hosting 700 international VIP guests. It is in this landscape, between history and the Mediterranean, that Alessandro Butera conceives his extroflessed artworks.
Alessandro Butera Studio operates exclusively by invitation, with no retail presence and no public pricing.