She was born in Orange, New Jersey, grew up in South Orange, and graduated from Columbia High School in 1991. Her mother is from New Orleans and her father was born in Ghana. Butler majored in Fine Art at Howard University, where she studied the work of Romare Bearden and attended lectures by prominent black artists such as Lois Mailou Jones. While pursuing a master's degree, she took a Fiber Art class that inspired her choice of quilting as an artistic medium. She said in an interview, "As a child, I was always watching my mother and grandmother sew, and they taught me. After that class, I made a quilt for my grandmother on her deathbed, and I have been quilting ever since." Butler earned a master's degree in Art Education from Montclair State University in 2004. She taught art in the Newark Public Schools. She now lives and works in Orange, NJ. Butler typically works in bright jewel tones rather than representational color. While at Howard, Butler was mentored by members of AfriCOBRA and she has stated that her color scheme is in line with their aesthetic. Her quilts often feature portraits of famous figures in black history, such as Paul Laurence Dunbar, Jackie Robinson, and Josephine Baker. She uses a variety of patterned fabrics, which she carefully selects to reflect the subject's life, sometimes using clothing worn by the subject. Her portrait of Nina Simone, for example, is made of cotton, silk, velvet, and netting, while that of Jean-Michel Basquiat is made of leather, cotton, and vintage denim. She has exhibited widely. In 2018 she exhibited at EXPO Chicago and was praised in Newcity and the Chicago Reader. In February 2019 her work was included along with that of Romare Bearden in The Art of Jazz, a Black History Month exhibition in Morristown, New Jersey. Butler's quilts are featured in art books such as Journey of Hope: Quilts Inspired by President Barack Obama and Collaborations: Two Decades of African American Art : Hearne Fine Art 1988-2008, and on websites such as Blavity and Colossal. In 2019, she was a finalist for the Museum of Art and Design's Burke Prize. Butler's first solo museum exhibition, "Bisa Butler: Portraits," was scheduled to be held at the Katonah Museum of Art from March 15 to June 14, 2020; however after temporarily closing due to health concerns the exhibition was extended to October 4, 2020.
