Bisa Butler Speaking Fee: Contact Us for Pricing

Bisa Butler, born in 1973 in Orange, New Jersey, is a distinguished African American textile artist celebrated for her vibrant quilted portraits that honor Black life and culture. She is the youngest of four children born to a college president and a French teacher. Her artistic journey began at the age of four when she won a blue ribbon in an art competition, foreshadowing her future in the arts. Butler pursued formal art education, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she refined her talents under mentors such as Lois Mailou Jones, Elizabeth Catlett, Jeff Donaldson, and Ernie Barnes. She later obtained a Master's in Art Education from Montclair State University in New Jersey. It was during her graduate studies that she experienced an artistic epiphany in a Fiber Arts class, leading her to combine her painting and drawing skills with sewing. This fusion resulted in her first quilted portrait, created for her grandmother during her final days, marking the beginning of her quilting journey. For over a decade, Butler taught art in New Jersey high schools, including ten years in the Newark Public Schools and three at Columbia High School in Maplewood. In 2019, she was a finalist for the Museum of Arts and Design's Burke Prize. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions, notably at the Katonah Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. She has also exhibited internationally in countries such as China, England, Japan, and South Africa. Her quilts are part of esteemed collections, including those of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. In 2022, Butler was awarded a Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship, culminating in the "Materfamilias" exhibition, which explores themes of motherhood and womanhood. Her work continues to receive critical acclaim, with features in major publications like Time Magazine and Vogue. In May 2022, she was honored with an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Bloomfield College. Butler's art not only reimagines and celebrates narratives of Black life but also invites viewers to engage deeply with the rich tapestry of African American history and identity.