Art Fact Friday #27 Bisa Butler
- William Mandela Matthews
- Jan 26, 2024
- 2 min read
An award winning African American textile artist known for vibrantly stunning larger than life sized quilted portraits that immerse viewers. Also well known for “Portraits”, garnering international attention. The artist has exhibited in United States, China, England, Japan, and South Africa. The artist works have been acquired by multiple institutions, including the Art Institute of Chicago; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The artist most recent work consists of portrait collaborations with contemporary photographers and artists. The artists modern, notable figures, include the hip-hop group Salt-N-Peppa and Chadwick Boseman. Utilizing a variety of photographs the artist recreates scenes, awakening the subjects with a signature blend of colorful, patterned, and textured fabrics. An Influential textile artist in the class of Faith Ringgold, Harriet Powers, and Gee’s Bend artist. Some have compared the artist to the work of Black artists Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, redefining portraiture. The artist describes the work as “a quilted photo album…of a Black diaspora family.”
Born 1973 in Orange, New Jersey, Bisa Butler’s artistic talent was first acknowledged when she won a blue ribbon for art at the age of four. Butler graduated Cum Laude from Howard University with a bachelor’s in fine arts. Under the tutelage of lecturers such as Lois Mailou Jones, Elizabeth Catlett, Jeff Donaldson and Al Smith Jr, Butler began to refine her natural talents. She became interested in collage techniques and began working with fabric. Butler earned her master’s in art from Montclair State University in 2005.
Butler taught high school in the Newark Public Schools for 10 years and Columbia High School Maplewood, New Jersey for three years. She exhibited at the Katonah Museum of Art in March 2020. Butler also was invited to hold a solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, 2021. She was also awarded a United States Artists Fellowship the same year. 2022, Butler received a Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship and exhibited in Art Basel Switzerland in the Jeffrey Deitch Gallery. She was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Bloomfield College as well.
The list of institutions and museums that have acquired Butler’s work include: The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Perez Museum of Miami, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, The Nelson-Adkins Museum, 21cMuseum Hotels, The Kemper Museum of Art, The Orlando Museum of Art, The Newark Museum, The Toledo Museum of Art, The Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Hunter Museum of American Art and The Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
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