Black Lives Are Celebrated In Bisa Butler's Extraordinary, Technicolor Quilts
The artist's life-size images explode with color and are inspired by iconic black and white photos. Her work is on display at Chicago's Art Institute through Sept. 6
At the top of the Grand Staircase at the Art Institute of Chicago hang massive, colorful banners announcing the art work of Bisa Butler.
Butler's specialty is fabric, specifically quilts. And the bold images of Black people she stitches together, using textiles like paint in an explosion of color, is quilting transformed.
"I describe my artwork as a quilted photo album of a Black family. But it's the Black diaspora family," says Butler, standing in the exhibition hall and overlooking her work.
She explains that some of the people depicted in her photo album are well known, others just ordinary folk often overlooked. No matter. All are celebrated.
"These ordinary folk who may have been very
