Quilted Portraits Honor the Stories of Black Men and Women Who Are Forgotten by History
Artist Bisa Butler paints with fabric. Through stunning contemporary quilts, she crafts life-sized historical portraits of Black men, women, and children whose stories may have been forgotten or completely overlooked. Using a variety of fabrics, Butler employs a painterly approach to how she produces her work. She layers fabrics as a painter would layer pigment and pieces each element together—down to the highlight on a nose or the shading on a lower lip.








































































