Have you seen the Button Man?

Fuller Craft Museum launches Beau McCall retrospective

Celina Colby

Celina Colby is an arts and travel reporter with a fondness for Russian novels.... VIEW BIO

Beau McCall has been flying under the radar in the art world for decades. Dubbed “The Button Man,” the textile artist is finally getting his flowers at his first ever retrospective exhibition, “Beau McCall: Buttons On!” at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton.

Buttons might seem an ordinary, domestic medium for an on-trend, avant-garde artist, but that’s precisely why McCall is drawn to them. For one thing, they’re universal. People of all cultures, creeds and economic statuses use buttons on garments and other items. A popular online meme speaks to that universality by showing the blue metal cookie tin of buttons that mothers around the globe have kept stashed for sewing projects.

“Button Bolero: Chocolate Sprinkles” PHOTO: WILL HOWCROFT

“Buttons are universal and have been used to express differences and similarities in class, political views and cultural norms,” says McCall. “I use buttons to create wearable and fine art that provokes deep consideration and reflection.”

The exhibition, curated by Peter “Souleo” Wright, is split into four themes addressing different moments in McCall’s 40-year career. There are many wearable artworks that feature buttons on garments, where viewers expect to see them, but McCall takes the medium far beyond a humble fabric-fastener. In sculptural installations, photographs, a new sound installation and a number of non-button works, McCall addresses social justice issues and pop culture.

One work is a 450-pound, cast-iron bathtub that McCall has completely covered in fire-engine-red buttons of varying sizes. Arms made out of white buttons wrap around the back of the tub in the position of a reclining person. The sculpture suggests a sanctuary for rest and spirituality, a self-care ritual that feels at once whimsical and essential.

Left-to-right: Beau-Mccall, Button Sneakers: Sunny, Button Sneakers: All-Sports, Button Sneakers: Moonwalk. PHOTO: WILL HOWCROFT

In a photo series, McCall showcases images of his core friend group in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. This chosen family was the group McCall came out to and the safe circle in which he explored his gay identity. The photographs reveal a bit about McCall’s biography, but they also serve as a snapshot of queer life during the AIDS crisis and the queer liberation movement.

“Within my creations, I want people to both engage with the topics of race, class, LGBTQ+ identity, and also find joy in the witty and whimsical pieces,” says McCall. “Hopefully, viewers are inspired as they consider how one element — in this case, a button — can collectively make a powerful statement.”

“darkmuskoilegyptiancrystals&floridawater/redpotionno.1” COURTESY PHOTO

In “Buttons On!” McCall will debut a sound piece. In it, he handles buttons of all different kinds while saying the name of the material. Listeners are enveloped by the soft tinkle of mother-of-pearl buttons, the staccato crumble of leather buttons, the clink of metal buttons and more.

McCall says this is an aspect of the material that many people don’t consider. “You’re not listening for the sound of a button when you fasten your blouse, or you fasten your coat,” he says. The artist plans to explore the sound medium further in future work.

The retrospective starts its journey in Brockton and will travel to San Francisco and Waterbury, Connecticut in 2025 and to Philadelphia in 2026. “Buttons On!” runs at the Fuller Craft Museum through February 2, 2025. Admission is free to all, always.

Wright says, “I hope viewers are inspired to look at the button in a different way. To reflect on their mothers or grandmothers who collected buttons and to see what it means in their own lives.”