Explore the past, present, and future with fiber artist Bisa Butler as she discusses how familial, educational, and societal influences inspired her to blend the line between art and craft. Butler is known for creating monumental quilted portraits of Black life and cultural identity with striking originality that share multilayered historical meanings and stories. Learn more about how Butler’s matrilineal sewing legacy, patrilineal Ghanaian roots, and the AfriCOBRA art movement resonate in her inventive quilting technique. Butler also shares how the current Black Lives Matter cry for racial justice and COVID-19 have influenced her work as she looks to creating in the future.

This program is part of our annual Clarice Smith Distinguished Lectures in American Art series, which presents new insights in American art from the perspectives of outstanding artists, critics, and scholars. The series is made possible by the generosity of Clarice Smith.

Image Credit: Images by Bisa Butler in her home studio in front of her artwork Dahomey Amazon, August 2020