{"id":213425,"date":"2020-12-11T10:54:45","date_gmt":"2020-12-11T15:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/?p=213425"},"modified":"2020-12-11T14:21:09","modified_gmt":"2020-12-11T19:21:09","slug":"art-institute-of-chicago-features-bisa-butler-05-solo-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/2020\/12\/11\/art-institute-of-chicago-features-bisa-butler-05-solo-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Art Institute of Chicago Features Bisa Butler \u201905 Solo Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not even the pandemic and the challenges of the last several months could slow the upward trajectory of quilting artist and alumna Mailissa “Bisa” Yamba Butler\u2019s career, which capped a year of accomplishments and recognition with a show at the prestigious Art Institute of Chicago, where 22 of her quilts are on exhibit until April.<\/p>\n

Butler, who graduated with a Master of Arts in Teaching in 2005, called the exhibit a \u201cdream come true\u201d and said the last few months have been \u201ca whirlwind.\u201d<\/p>\n

In March, Butler\u2019s portrait of 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai<\/a> was featured as one of 100 covers produced as part of Time<\/em>\u2019s 100 Women of the Year. In July, the Toledo Museum of Art announced the purchase<\/a> of Butler\u2019s portrait of Frederick Douglass, titled The Storm, the Whirlwind, and The Earthquake<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Her first major museum show, Bisa Butler: Portraits<\/a>, had a delayed opening at the Katonah Museum of Art due to the pandemic but has now traveled to the Art Institute of Chicago<\/a> where her quilts are on exhibit from November 16, 2020, to April 19, 2021.<\/p>\n

\"Bisa
Bisa Butler \u201905 MAT at the opening of Bisa Butler: Portraits, Art Institute of Chicago, November 16, 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Butler\u2019s unique technique involves reappropriating vintage photographs and giving them new life through a unique folkloric medium \u2013 quilting. Her portraits include famous people but often feature the unnamed, the forgotten. The man in I Am Not Your Negro<\/em> is as regal and deeply layered as Frederick Douglass in The Storm, the Whirlwind, and the Earthquake<\/em>. Her work engages with themes of family, community, migration, history, creativity and promise using a variety of material including velvet, cotton wool, silk and West African kente cloth.<\/p>\n

The beloved art educator (she was inducted into the Columbia High School Hall of Fame when she left teaching at her alma mater in Maplewood, New Jersey, to focus full-time on her burgeoning art career) has indeed been \u201chaving her moment,\u201d reported Art & Design<\/a> in April. And that moment looks like it is stretching into a long career of recognition and achievement.<\/p>\n

\"Detail
Bisa Butler, I Am Not Your Negro (Detail), 2019. Cotton, wool and chiffon, quilted and appliqu\u00e9d. 79 x 60 in. (Courtesy of the Claire Oliver Gallery, New York)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMy exhibit at the Art Institute Of Chicago is a dream come true,\u201d she wrote in a recent email. \u201cI have been a big fan and admirer of Charles White, Margaret Burroughs and Kerry James Marshall for so long, and to be able to exhibit at one of the finest art museums in the world where their work is hanging lets me know that my art ancestors are looking out for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Bisa
Bisa Butler \u201905 MAT at the opening of Bisa Butler: Portraits, Art Institute of Chicago, November 16, 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Story by Staff Writer Mary Barr Mann<\/a><\/p>\n