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Catharine Friend, Annie Kammerer Butrus, Annieo Klaas
February 5 – 21, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 5, 5 – 7 pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, February 21, 3 pm
Ground Floor Contemporary is thrilled to present Accordion, an exhibition of new works by Catharine Friend, Annie Kammerer Butrus, and Annieo Klaas.
Catharine Friend is a painter working in a range of genres, such as figurative, landscape, and abstraction. Her work often explores the sensory dynamics between subject matter, the artist, and ideas. Friend received a BA from Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, where she studied French and Art History and began painting full-time in 2001 after retiring from non-profit work. She paints and studies art extensively while working in her studio, taking workshops, and collaborating with fellow artists. Friend lives and works in Birmingham and Fairhope, AL.
Annie Kammerer Butrus is an artist whose practice is primarily realized through painting. She concentrates on the intersection of science, landscape, and memory and how the impact of nature, emotions, and mapping shape our idea of change, place, and belonging. Her work can be found in public and private collections such as the Art Bridges/Crystal Bridges Campus; Birmingham Museum of Art; AEIVA; The Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL; Baptist/MD Anderson in Jacksonville, FL; and Children’s of Alabama in Birmingham. Butrus was awarded the 2025 Collector’s Circle of Contemporary Art Artist Award from the Birmingham Museum of Art and an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Alabama State Arts Council. She received her BA in Studio Art from Wellesley College and her MFA in Painting and Printmaking from the University of Notre Dame. Butrus lives and works in Birmingham, AL
Annieo Klaas is an oil painter whose work explores the quiet drama of sunlight and shadow within everyday spaces. Influenced by the sensibility of magical realism in literature, her work illuminates the ethereal qualities that rest within ordinary spaces, revealing how light can blur the boundary between reality and reverie. Klaas has recently exhibited at the Mobile Museum of Art, the LaGrange Art Museum, the Alabama Contemporary Art Center, Field Projects (NY), and Warnes Contemporary (NY). Her work has been featured in New American Paintings (South Issue 178) and is soon to be featured in Booooooom’s Tomorrow’s Talent (Issue 5). Klaas grew up in Dakar, Senegal, holds a BFA from Cornish College of the Arts and a PharmD from Auburn University, and is based in Birmingham, AL, where she works as a nuclear pharmacist.
Artwork: Annieo Klaas