Chakaia Booker

Chakaia Booker (born 1953 in Newark, New Jersey) is an American sculptor known for creating monumental, abstract works for both the gallery and outdoor public spaces. Booker’s works are contained in more than 40 public collections and have been exhibited across the United States, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Booker was included in the 2000 Whitney Biennial, received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005, and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Art in 2001. Booker has lived and worked in New York City’s East Village since the early 1980s and maintains a production studio in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Chakaia Booker
Born1953 (age 69–70)
Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
EducationRutgers University,
City College of New York
Known forSculpture
Websitehttps://chakaiabooker.com/

Booker is best known for her innovative and signature use of recycled rubber tires, her primary sculptural material. Rubber has provided Booker with the ability to work in a modular format at a monumental scale while maintaining a fluid movement and gestural feel. Throughout her career, Booker has consistently used stainless steel and fabric to create sculptural works in addition to rubber tires. In 2009, Booker began an in depth exploration of printmaking creating a significant body of graphic works, largely focused on the process of chine collé. Booker’s approach to printmaking processes is reminiscent of her modular working methods in sculpture. Printmaking has become a regular part of Booker’s artistic output, and as with her use of rubber, Booker has invented unique ways of manipulating materials and process.

Early life and education

Booker was born in 1953 in Newark, New Jersey and raised in neighboring East Orange, New Jersey. She learned to sew from her grandmother, aunt, and sister. Fixing, repairing, and manipulating materials early in life was foundational to Booker’s later approach to wearable art, ceramics, and sculpture, specifically with the use of pattern, repetition, and modular construction.

Booker received a BA in sociology from Rutgers University in 1976 and an MFA from the City College of New York[1] in 1993. She has studied African dance, ceramics, weaving, basketry, and t'ai chi, all of which have influenced her art.[1]

She has lived and worked in New York City’s East Village since the early 1980s. In the 1990s, she began working with discarded construction materials and rubber tires, which evolved into her artistic style. She maintains a production studio in Allentown, Pennsylvania for fabrication of large-scale and public works. Booker has served on the boards of the International Sculpture Center and Socrates Sculpture Park.

Career
Raw Attraction (2001) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2022

Beginning in the 1980s, Booker created wearable sculptures which she could place herself inside and utilize as clothing. "The wearable garment sculpture was about getting energy and feeling from a desired design."[2] In the early 1990s, Booker began to create large outdoor sculptures from discarded materials found at construction sites, including rubber tires, a medium in which she continues to work. The various tire tread patterns, colors, and widths create a palette for Booker similar to the palette of a painter. Booker's use of tires suggest a range of aesthetic, political, cultural, and economic concerns. They may be considered a reference to the urban landscape of Northern New Jersey[1] or a reminder how modes of transportation have changed since the industrial age.[3] The tire sculptures may also be considered to address African American identity: their varying pigments and textures can be interpreted as a representation of the range of African American skin tones,[4] and their resiliency has been viewed as "a compelling metaphor of African American survival in the modern world."[5] Tire tread patterns in her work may also refer to elements of African culture, including scarification, body painting, and traditional textiles.[6]

Booker's work also deals with themes of class, labor, and gender. Booker's "Echoes in Black (Industrial Cicatrization)" from the 2000 Whitney Biennial deals with the emotional and physical scarification that people experience in life. Her piece "No More Milk and Cookies" from 2003 "questions our commercially driven society and what happens when consumption is prohibited."[7] Her 2001 piece "Wench (Wrench) III" is a surrealistic sculpture that subverts a very masculine mechanic's wrench into a feminine feather boa. The piece "Spirit Hunter" is reminiscent of images of life and death, as well as a feminist approach to birth and sexuality.[8]

Works and exhibits

Chakaia Booker currently works and resides in New York City. Her work is part of the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Akron Art Museum, Cornell University's Johnson Museum of Art, The Max Protetch and June Kelly galleries in New York, and others. She has participated in both group and solo exhibitions in such places as the Neuberger Museum of Art, the Akron Museum of Art, Marlborough gallery, the Sandler Hudson Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia, and the PS 1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens, as well as in the "Twentieth Century American Sculpture" exhibition held at the White House in 1996.

On June 22, 2008, Booker unveiled "Chaikaia Booker: Mass Transit" in Indianapolis, Indiana. This public art exhibition featured 10 sculptures "created by the artist following her visit to Indianapolis and her researching of the city's history and heritage."[9]

The National Museum of Women in the Arts has exhibited her works in The New York Avenue Sculpture Project (2012), FOREFRONT: Chakaia Booker (2006), and Reaching for the Stars through Art (1998).[10] The Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, GA also exhibited her work in an exhibition entitled Defiant Beauty, which was on display from April 2012 – 2013.[11] Several of her works were also on display in New York City's Garment District from June–November 2014.[12]

Booker is one of nine contemporary artists with work on display at the Renwick Gallery's Wonder Gallery in the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C.[13] The sculpture on display was "It's So Hard to be Green," which was also exhibited at the 2000 Whitney Museum Biennial.[14] Booker's sculpture Position Preferred was on view at the McNay Art Museum in 2020.[15]

In May 2021, her exhibition "Chakaia Booker: The Observance" went on display at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami.[16] In 2021, Oklahoma Contemporary displayed her Shaved Portions exhibit.[17]

Notable works in public collections

Awards, commissions, and residencies

Selected awards and residencies

Selected commissions

References
  1. Mathew Guy Nichols "Chakaia Booker: Material Matters", Art in America V.92 No.6 (June/July 2004)164-169
  2. Jan Garden Castro "The Language of Life: A Conversation with Chakaia Booker", Sculpture, V.22 No.1
  3. Masson, Lucinda (March 2007). "The Putney School Gallery, Michael S. Currier Center/Putney, VT: Chakaia Booker: Sculpture". Art New England. 28 (2): 36. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
  4. Wei, "Queen of Rubber Soul", 88
  5. Nichols, "Chakaia Booker: Material Matters", 167
  6. Nichols, "Chakaia Booker: Material Matters", 166
  7. Castro, "The Language of Life:Chakaia Booker", 29
  8. Decordova
  9. Downtown Dedication Marks Debut of Public Art Exhibition – Newsroom – Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick Archived July 19, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  10. "Chakaia Booker". National Museum of Women in the Arts. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
  11. "Defiant Beauty: The Work of Chakaia Booker". Georgia Museum of Art. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
  12. "Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Garment District Selects Virtuoso Artist Chakaia Booker for Public Installation" (PDF) (press release). Garment District NYC. garmentdistrictnyc.com. April 14, 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 12, 2014. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
  13. "Wonder Gallery". Renwick Gallery. November 13, 2015. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
  14. Ault, Alicia (November 24, 2015). "Artist Chakaia Booker Gives Tires a Powerful Retread". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
  15. "What to do in San Antonio Today: July 29". San Antonio Magazine. 2020-07-28. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
  16. Aboreden, Ashley-Anna (2021-05-18). "Chakaia Booker's Craftsmanship Is on Display at ICA Miami". Miami New Times. Retrieved 2021-06-02.
  17. "Oklahoma Contemporary Exhibitions". Mutual Art. MutualArt Services, Inc. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  18. "Shhh". PyramidHill. Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park and Museum. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  19. "Mother and Child". Zimmerli Museum. Rutgers University. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  20. "Blue Bell". Allen Art Collection. Oberlin College. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  21. "Acquisition: Chakaia Booker". NGA. National Gallery of Art. 18 August 2022. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  22. "Sweet Dreams". Brooklyn Museum. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  23. "When Thoughts Collide". Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. Cornell University. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  24. "Acid Rain". NMWA. National Museum of Women in the Arts. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  25. "El Gato". KemperArt. Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  26. "India Blue". FlintArts. Flint Institute of Arts. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  27. "It's Like This". ArtsBMA. Birmingham Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 18 May 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  28. "Artwork on Second Floor - Reynolds Library". Philander Smith College African American Art Collection. Philander Smith College. 14 October 2014. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  29. "Raw Attraction". MetMuseum. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  30. "Urban Butterfly". Davis Museum. Wellesley College. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  31. "Urban Mask". NMAAHC. Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  32. "Untitled". BrooksMuseum. Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  33. "A Moment in Time". StormKing. Storm King Art Center. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  34. "Echoing Factors". Brooklyn College Library. City University of New York. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  35. "Quality Time". RISDMuseum. Rhode Island School of Design. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  36. "Quality Time". Whitney. Whitney Museum. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  37. "Quality Time". Yale Art Gallery. Yale University. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  38. "Rendezvous". Meijer Gardens. Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  39. "Urban Excursion". Meijer Gardens. Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  40. "Position Preferred". McNayArt. McNay Art Museum. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  41. "Remembering Columbia". Flickr. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 6 June 2013. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  42. "Four Twenty One". Driskell Center. University of Maryland, College Park. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  43. "Four Twenty One". Yale Art Gallery. Yale University. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  44. "Untitled". Davis Museum. Wellesley College. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  45. "Untitled woodcut and chine collé". LOC. Library of Congress. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  46. "The Liquidity of Legacy". NMAAHC. Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on 7 August 2023. Retrieved 7 August 2023.

Further reading
  • Arango, Jorge. "Elevating the Everyday: Sculpture Chakaia Booker". Essence November 2003, 146
  • Castro, John Gardener "The Language of Life: Chakaia Booker". Sculpture (Washington D.C.) January/February 2003, 28-33
  • "Chakaia Booker", 2007, Decordova Sculpture Park Online, 2007, (21 March 2007)
  • "Chakaia Booker", 2007 Marlborough Gallery Online, 2007 (21 March 2007)
  • Glueck, Grace; "Art InReview; Chakaia Booker," The New York Times, 16 March 2001,
  • Lewis, Samella S.; African American Art and Artists. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990
  • Nichols, Mathew Guy; "Chakaia Booker:Material Matters", Art In America, June/July 2004, 164-169
  • Sanders, Phil and David Krut Projects (Gallery). Chakaia Booker: Print Me. New York: David Krut Publishing. 2012
  • Wei, Lilly; "Queen of Rubber Soul", Art News, January 2002, 88-90
  • Wilkinson, Michelle; Material girls : contemporary Black women artists: Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, 2011, 18-19
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