Using a wide variety of different patterns and fabrics, New York-based artist Bisa Butler creates colourful quilted portraits.
Using a wide variety of different patterns and fabrics, New York-based artist Bisa Butler creates colourful quilted portraits.
The absolutely stunning quilting and fabric work of artist Bisa Butler hearkens back to the roots of African American experience, evoking Gullah culture and Gee's Bend quilts. She uses no paint at all in these incredible fabric portraits...just cotton, silk, wool and velvet in quilted and appliqué techniques. The hue and chroma and shading she gets is phenomenal. Top to bottom: Broom Jumpers; Dear Mama; I Am Not Your Negro; I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings; Kindred; To Truth and God detail; To Truth and God detail; close up of a portrait; Bisa Butler at work; Bisa Butler at work https://www.instagram.com/bisabutler/
Brooklyn-based artist Bisa Butler (previously) uses brightly colored cotton, wool, and chiffon fabrics with bold patterns to piece together quilts featuring detailed portraits of Black people. The materials and themes connect American subjects with their African roots and tell visual stories of history and culture. Butler is a New Jersey-born African American artist with Ghanian heritage. A closer look at her portraits reveals intricate mosaics of shapes and patterns and complex multi-hued skin tones. More
I would love to see Bisa Butler's show in person, but thankfully we can still view it online. This is her first solo museum exhibition and features 26 vivid and larger-than-life fabric portraits that capture African American identity and culture. Visit the Katonah Museum of Art web site for a behind-the-scenes look at the unique
Artist Bisa Butler draws from an array of vibrant patterned fabrics to create portraits of everyday people. She eschews representational colors, favoring layered jewel-toned hues to form the skin of her Black subjects, and often groups figures together into strong silhouettes. “I have always been drawn to portraits,” Butler explains in a statement on her gallery’s website. “I was the little girl who would sit next to my grandmother and ask her to go through her old family photo albums. More
Using a wide variety of different patterns and fabrics, New York-based artist Bisa Butler creates colourful quilted portraits.
Looking for quilting inspiration? Look no further, we've trawled the web to bring you the most inpsirating quilt artists you just have to follow.
Brooklyn-based artist Bisa Butler (previously) uses brightly colored cotton, wool, and chiffon fabrics with bold patterns to piece together quilts featuring detailed portraits of Black people. The materials and themes connect American subjects with their African roots and tell visual stories of history and culture. Butler is a New Jersey-born African American artist with Ghanian heritage. A closer look at her portraits reveals intricate mosaics of shapes and patterns and complex multi-hued skin tones. More
Using a wide variety of different patterns and fabrics, New York-based artist Bisa Butler creates colourful quilted portraits.
Artist Bisa Butler draws from an array of vibrant patterned fabrics to create portraits of everyday people. She eschews representational colors, favoring layered jewel-toned hues to form the skin of her Black subjects, and often groups figures together into strong silhouettes. “I have always been drawn to portraits,” Butler explains in a statement on her gallery’s website. “I was the little girl who would sit next to my grandmother and ask her to go through her old family photo albums. More
Artist Bisa Butler draws from an array of vibrant patterned fabrics to create portraits of everyday people. She eschews representational colors, favoring layered jewel-toned hues to form the skin of her Black subjects, and often groups figures together into strong silhouettes. “I have always been drawn to portraits,” Butler explains in a statement on her gallery’s website. “I was the little girl who would sit next to my grandmother and ask her to go through her old family photo albums. More
Brooklyn-based artist Bisa Butler (previously) uses brightly colored cotton, wool, and chiffon fabrics with bold patterns to piece together quilts featuring detailed portraits of Black people. The materials and themes connect American subjects with their African roots and tell visual stories of history and culture. Butler is a New Jersey-born African American artist with Ghanian heritage. A closer look at her portraits reveals intricate mosaics of shapes and patterns and complex multi-hued skin tones. More
Brooklyn-based artist Bisa Butler (previously) uses brightly colored cotton, wool, and chiffon fabrics with bold patterns to piece together quilts featuring detailed portraits of Black people. The materials and themes connect American subjects with their African roots and tell visual stories of history and culture. Butler is a New Jersey-born African American artist with Ghanian heritage. A closer look at her portraits reveals intricate mosaics of shapes and patterns and complex multi-hued skin tones. More
Bisa Butler is an American fiber artist who makes life-sized quilt portraits retelling African American history through fabric and texture.
Print developed from Bisa Butler's The Safety Patrol, 2018, from the Art Institute’s collection. Bisa Butler’s quilts are exuberant, colorful, and almost photo-like—arresting and complex objects made entirely of fabric that has been carefully cut, layered, and stitched together. Through her works, often striking portraits, Butler depicts African American life in a way that invites viewers to deeply consider and invest in the lives of her subjects while also reframing historical narratives surrounding quilt making. Print Reproduction Image size: 10 3/4 in. x 10 in. Poster size: 12 in. x 12 in. Materials: Premium Cardstock Condition: In excellent condition - has slightly bent corner tips which can easily be concealed once framed.
The artist draws on vintage African and African American imagery to create quilted portraiture that is a "celebration and an affirmation of Black life."
