The New York Times:
From 2 Artists, 2 Ways to Tell Stories of Black America
October 21, 2020
This article is part of our latest Fine Arts & Exhibits special report, which focuses on how art endures and inspires, even in the darkest of times.
As museums are reopening this fall, the work of Black artists is prominently on display around the country, one result of a broad-based movement to feature diverse creators in a systemic and lasting way.
Smithsonian Magazine:
ARTIST BISA BUTLER STITCHES TOGETHER THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
July 24, 2020
Her dynamic quilts that reimagine old portraits will be on display in New York in her first solo exhibition
TIME:
2001: Wangari Maathai
March 5, 2020
This article is part of 100 Women of the Year, TIME’s list of the most influential women of the past century. Read more about the project, explore the 100 covers and sign up for our Inside TIME newsletter for more.
Juxtapoz Magazine:
Bisa Butler : Stitching History
March, 2020
Butler works solely in textiles, but her most recent work, a debut exhibition at NYC’s Claire Oliver Gallery, where she is represented, would have you believe otherwise.
Vogue Magazine:
Depth, History, and Reverence: The Intricacies of Bisa Butler’s Quilted Portraits
March 3, 2020
Bisa Butler thought her life as an artist was over. It was 1995, her final year at Howard University, and the fine art major, pregnant with her first daughter, found herself overcome with unbearable nausea at the smell of paint. With a thesis project left to complete, Butler turned to fabrics as a stopgap, layering textiles on top of her paintings. She finished her project, graduated, and gave birth to daughter Temilayo, but she didn’t go near paint again.
Fox 5
"Where did you get that?"
The Financial Times:
Bisa Butler: Portriats
2020
"The artists quilts are a kaleidoscope of color and texture collating the influences and experiences of individuals of African decent.”
Colossal:
Bisa Butler (previously) shares her fascinating journey with fiber art, African textile traditions, and historical portraiture in an interview with Colossal’s managing editor. Drawing from university training with both AfriCOBRA artists and feminist fiber artists, Butler has carved her own path as an exhibiting artist with vibrant and evocative quilts.
The New York Times:
ART & MUSEUMS
Quilts With Stories to Tell
2019
Bisa Butler’s work originates from the idea of absence. The subjects for her quilts tend to be anonymous, sometimes given little more than a designation of “Negro,” which is the search term she plugged into one of the Library of Congress’s photographic databases to find some of her source material.
ArtNet:
Studio Visit
September 22, 2020
New Jersey-based fiber artist Bisa Butler has had a surprisingly eventful year. The artist, who creates brilliantly colorful, large-scale quilted portraits of African Americans, debuted a solo show at Harlem’s Claire Oliver Gallery in late February. Meanwhile, her first museum exhibition at the Katonah Museum of Art, which was scheduled for March, just recently opened to the public after lockdown. (After that, it will head to the Art Institute of Chicago, which recently acquired one of her works.)
