First Solo Museum Exhibition Announced for Artist Bisa Butler
March 15 – June 14, 2020
Bisa Butler. Black Star Family, first class tickets to Liberia, 2018, Cotton, silk and denim, Private Collection, Saint Louis, MO
On March 15, 2020 the Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY will proudly present the work of Bisa Butler. This will be the first solo museum exhibition of the artist’s current work and will feature approximately 25 of her vivid and larger-than-life quilts that capture African American identity and culture.
Butler, a formally trained African American artist of Ghanaian heritage, broaches the dividing line between creating with paints on canvas and creating with fiber by fashioning magnificent quilts and elevating a medium hitherto designated as craft into one that is clearly high art. While quilts have historically been isolated in the history of art as the products of working women, Butler’s work not only acknowledges this tradition, but also reinvents it. Continuing with an aesthetic set in motion by artists such as Romare Bearden and Faith Ringgold, Butler forges an individual and expressive signature style that draws upon her own cultural background and experiences.
Museum of Arts and Design announces artist Bisa Butler a finalist for The Burke Prize
An exhibition of works from the 2019 finalists for the Museum’s Burke Prize, awarded to a contemporary artist under the age of forty-five working in glass, fiber, clay, metal, and/or wood. Selected by a jury of professionals in the field, the finalists represent emerging voices whose highly accomplished works demonstrate both a strong use of materials and innovative processes, as well as conceptual rigor and relevance.
Learn more about MAD and the BURKE Prize
The Art Institute of Chicago announces Bisa Butler, Tschabalala Self and Amanda Williams in New Paradigms: #BlackGirlMagic: Tuesday 10.22.19 | 6 pm. | Chicago, IL
In recognition of #BlackGirlMagic and the continued need to heighten the visibility of women of color in museums, three black women artists whose work has recently been acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago. Bisa Butler, Tschabalala Self, and Amanda Williams discuss their individual work, the collective work of their fellow women of color, and why indeed #BlackGirlsAreMagic. Learn more ..
The Safety Patrol, 2018, Bisa Butler (American, born 1973)
Bisa Butler’s “Safety Patrol” acquired by The Art Institute of Chicago:
The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879 is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. In recent years, the museum has continued to collect and exhibit modern and contemporary art, including works that represent art’s broader history.
