Juan Butten was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and currently lives in New York. Butten is a multidisciplinary artist who combines his knowledge from various fields of art. His recent miniature works are primarily created from recycled materials collected from the beaches of the Dominican Republic.

Juan Butten has held solo exhibitions such as Transgresión Morfológica at the Instituto Cultural Dominico Americano in Santo Domingo in 2007, Catarsis at UNESCO in Santo Domingo in 2008, and Fase Uno at the Centro Cultural España in Santo Domingo in 2023. In these recent works, Butten invites us to reflect on the plastic crisis on our island and its future impact—a pressing concern given warnings from organizations about the possibility of having more plastic than fish in our oceans by 2050.