Bisa Butler: Portraits: KMA: The Katonah Museum of Art’s new Bisa Butler: Portraits exhibition is the first solo museum exhibition of the artist’s work. The show will feature 25-30 of her vivid, larger-than-life quilts that capture African American identity and culture. The show will be on view at the Katonah Museum of Art (KMA) from March 15 to June 14, 2020. The it will travel to the Art Institute of Chicago. A fully illustrated catalogue will accompany the show.

The Bisa Butler: Portraits exhibition, if current social distancing guidelines are removed, may open by May. It can be viewed Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm & Sundays 12-5pm to June 14.

More about Bisa Butler: Portraits: KMA

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. Her emergence as a quilt artist began humbly when she constructed a quilt for her dying grandmother mainly as a means of comfort.

The quilts are vibrant portraits of African American life.  For each, Butler takes inspiration from photographs. She creates a story around each image. And, in her choice of fabrics, she uses texture, color and the cultural origin of the cloth as part of a personal iconography. Each makes statements about society and identity.

African painted cotton and mud cloth tells the story of her ancestral homeland. Vintage lace and aged satin might demonstrate the delicacy and refinement of times past. While multi-colored organza and layered netting convey a story of someone colorful and multifaceted. The constructed nature of the work relies on piecing and stitching. And acknowledges the traditions of needlework normally associated with women and domesticity. Butler subverts this notion through her choice of motifs, embellishments, patterning and scale. All drawn from African textiles. What results are stunning works that transform family memories and cultural practices into works of social statement.