Harnessing the power of empathy, Bisa Butler presents a tender, evocative suite of new works in her current exhibition, Hold Me Close at Jeffrey Deitch. The artist is known for her chromatic, multi-patterned quilted artworks exploring Black history, identity, and craft traditions. Her elaborate pieces combine materials like printed cotton, silk, sequins, beads, and velvet to create both large-scale tapestries and intimate vignettes.
The work in Hold Me Close centers around the need for mutual respect, love, and togetherness in a society that has become increasingly factious. “This body of work is a visual response to how I am feeling as an African American woman living in 2025,” Butler says in a statement for the show. Deeply moved by our current era of division and violence, in which hard-won civil rights are being challenged and overturned, she taps in the past to shed light on our current moment.
Hold Me Close draws on imagery from trailblazing Black photographers like Gordon Parks, Jean Depara, and Gerald Cyrus, who captured street scenes depicting Black figures going about their daily lives and enjoying one another’s company. Parks, for example, was a staunch civil rights advocate who documented racial segregation and oppression of Black people to boldly illustrate the societal disparities in the 1940s and 1950s.
In his two-decade role at Life magazine, Parks captured some of his most significant work, ranging from celebrity portraits to the iconic March on Washington in 1963. Along with numerous other photographers—and acclaimed artists like Faith Ringgold and Kerry James Marshall—that Butler turns to for reference imagery, Parks’ images elucidate the evolving diversity of American culture and experience.
Butler renders her figures in brilliant, mixed-media textures and vivid patterns that draw attention to expressions and interactions. The artist describes her recent work as a “visual diary,” which she turns to for solace. “Protections and programs for non-white Americans, women, queer people, poor people, and people with disabilities are under attack, and it has left me feeling destabilized,” she says.
In the face of uncertainty, the artist summons affection and care. “Les Amoureux du Kinshasa,” after a photo titled “Amoureux Au Nightclub” by Jean Depara, celebrates young love by depicting a couple on a night out. More works like “Be Mine” and “My Cherie Amour” capture tender portraits of people who lean close together.
Butler’s compositions also explore familial endearment and the innocence and ease of children at play together. In “The Guardian,” a father warms his daughter inside of his large coat, and in “Down, down baby,” two young girls have an impromptu tea party in a puddle.
Most of Butler’s new works start with a base of jet black cotton or black velvet, onto which she layers colors and textures. “Using a dark base pushed me to incorporate more fabrics with shimmer and reflective qualities,” she says. Three-dimensional textures like beads and rhinestones create the illusion of depth, encouraging us to look beyond the immediate surface. This poetically parallels how, in order to identify and connect with others in our daily lives, we must do the same. Butler says, “This collection is my visual declaration that we need love over hate.”
Hold Me Close continues at Jeffrey Deitch’s Los Angeles location through November 1. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
