"[2] Her work has been compared to that of George Ohr because of its "penchant for crumpled shapes, twisted and pinched openings.
"[3][4] Among Butterly's vast library of visual references to historical ceramics, her particular invocation of Ohr in her "thin-walled, manipulated pieces" has also been noted by Roberta Smith.
[6] She eschews large-scale formats, preferring concise compositions expressing various moods.
Major solo exhibitions include: ColorForm (2019) at Manetti Shrem Museum of Art; Thought Presence (2018) at James Cohan Gallery; Kathy Butterly- The Quality of a Line at The Armory Fair (2017); The Weight of Color at Shoshana Wayne Gallery (2015); Enter at Tibor de Nagy Gallery (2014); Freaks and Beauties: Opener 10: Kathy Butterly at The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum.
In 2018, Butterly's work was included in a gift of modern ceramics by Robert A. Ellison Jr. to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.