“Bisa Butler: Tender Monuments” Traces Artist’s Creative Practice Across Three Decades
Bisa Butler is a singular voice among a cadre of contemporary artists who engage figural representation to examine the beauty and complexity of Black experience. Marking the largest survey to date of the artist’s large-scale quilts, “Bisa Butler: Tender Monuments” explores Butler’s distinctive, multifaceted practice. Her body of work draws largely on historical research into archival photographs of Black Americans and other African diasporic people, which she transforms into her own brightly colored interpretations, using carefully selected and shaped textiles with vibrant colors, lush textures and symbolic patterns. Through culturally significant fabric choices and technical prowess, Butler creates deeply empathetic portrayals of both unnamed subjects and well-known figures such as Harriet Tubman, Octavia Butler and Salt-N-Pepa.
“Bisa Butler: Tender Monuments” will be on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum Friday, March 19, 2027, through Sunday, Aug. 22, 2027. This mid-career survey, the result of five years of planning and research into Butler’s practice, brings together three decades of Butler’s work, from a 1995 self-portrait made while studying painting at Howard University to her most recent work, a self-portrait completed in 2026. Organized thematically, the exhibition features nearly 40 quilts by Butler, presented alongside works by her artistic influences and predecessors such as Romare Bearden, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar and others, drawn from Smithsonian collections.
“Bisa Butler: Tender Monuments” is co-curated by Dalila Scruggs, the museum’s Augusta Savage Curator of African American Art, and Liz Andrews, executive director of the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, in close collaboration with the artist and with support from Maria R. Eipert, curatorial assistant. The exhibition will travel following its presentation in Washington, D.C.; specific venues will be announced once they are confirmed.
“As home to one of the most significant collections of works by American artists in the world, and African American artists in particular, the Smithsonian American Art Museum is uniquely positioned to uplift Bisa Butler’s work within a lineage of American artistic innovation,” said Jane Carpenter-Rock, the acting Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. “We look forward to inviting communities in Washington, D.C., and beyond into our galleries to experience the power of these artworks and the universal human stories they convey.”
“Bisa Butler: Tender Monuments” frames Butler’s quilts as large-scale commemorations that affirm Black joy, self-determination and solidarity. In contrast to traditional monuments made of stone or bronze, Butler’s quilts use thread and fabric to memorialize stories of resilience and possibility for Black Americans, Africans and people across the African diaspora.
“Butler tenders, or makes a formal offering to her audience, of a wide array of materials—silk, velvet, sequins, fur and lace,” Scruggs said. “These deeply layered works also imbue a tenderness toward her subjects, rendering human emotion into a tactile, sensory experience for viewers.”
“Bisa Butler’s vibrant, loving portraits monumentalize Black subjects, histories and possibilities,” Andrews said.
The exhibition will feature an in-gallery fabric touch station, bringing viewers even closer to Butler’s rich materiality and offering a tactile, sensory entry point into the artist’s practice. Videos and audio stops will offer additional insights into Butler’s process and further illuminate the stories of the individuals she honors in her quilts.
About Bisa Butler
Born in New Jersey to an African American mother and a Ghanian father, Butler earned her bachelor’s degree in fine arts in painting at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she began incorporating textiles into her practice. She holds a master’s degree in teaching art from Montclair State University in New Jersey and taught art in Newark Public schools for over a decade. Her work has been exhibited widely in the United States and internationally. In 2020, the Katonah Museum of Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago co-organized her first institutional solo exhibition. Butler’s work can be found in the collections of numerous museums, including the Brooklyn Museum; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum among others. Butler lives and works in Orange, New Jersey.
Publication
A major catalog with new scholarship, co-published by the museum and Smithsonian Books, is forthcoming. It is edited by Andrews and Scruggs with a foreword by Carpenter-Rock and includes an interview with the artist and contributions by Robin Givhan, Lisa Farrington, Carolyn L. Mazloomi, John Jacob, Phoebe Hillemann, Joanne Hyppolite, Rhea L. Combs, Brittany Webb and Robyn Simpson.
Credit
“Bisa Butler: Tender Monuments” is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Major support is provided by Henry Luce Foundation and Vlisco. Generous support is provided by Melissa Clark, Harris Family Fund, Eric G. Johnson and Holly Gaines Johnson, Pamela Royall and the Lenore G. Tawney Foundation. Additional support is provided by William R. Kenan Jr. Endowment Fund; Jeffrey Deitch, New York and Los Angeles; Amy Sabrin and Evans Witt. This project received financial support from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum. This exhibition received support from the Fisher Arts Impact Fund.
About the Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is the flagship museum in the United States for American art and craft. It is home to one of the most significant collections of American art in the world. The museum’s main building, located at Eighth and G streets N.W., is open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. The museum’s Renwick Gallery, a branch museum dedicated to contemporary craft, is located on Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street N.W. and is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Check online for current hours and admission information. Admission is free. Follow the museum on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. Smithsonian information: (202) 633-1000. Museum information (recorded): (202) 633-7970. Website: americanart.si.edu.