Chakaia Booker

Chakaia Booker is an influential artist known for her innovative use of materialsю

Biography of Chakaia Booker

Chakaia Booker was born in 1953 in Newark, New Jersey. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Rutgers University in 1976 and her Master of Fine Arts from the City College of New York (CUNY) in 1993. Booker's extensive studies included African dance, ceramics, weaving, basketry, and tai chi, which have all significantly influenced her artistic practices.

Booker's work has been exhibited extensively across the US, Europe, Africa, and Asia. She was included in the 2000 Whitney Biennial and received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005. Her notable public installations include those at Millennium Park in Chicago (2016-2018), the Garment District Alliance Broadway Plazas in New York (2014), and the National Museum of Women in the Arts New York Avenue Sculpture Project in Washington DC (2012). In 2021, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami published a monograph to accompany her retrospective, "The Observance."

Chakaia Booker's Art Style

Chakaia Booker is renowned for her elaborate and ornamental sculptures created from used and discarded construction materials, particularly rubber tires. She describes her sculptures as "abstractly African," merging ecological concerns with explorations of racial and economic differences, globalization, and gender. Her artistic process involves physically demanding tasks such as transporting and reshaping tires with machinery, transforming these industrial materials into complex assemblages with anthropomorphic qualities.

Booker's work often reflects the experience of being Black in America. The varied tones of the rubber symbolize human diversity, while the tire treads draw inspiration from African scarification and textile design. The visible wear and tear on the tires evoke the physical marks of aging.

Booker has also created wearable sculptures that incorporate African textiles and flowing materials. These pieces emphasize movement and embody the artist's concept of life energy, or chi, emanating through the materials. Booker views her daily activities, such as dressing, sewing, and cooking, as art forms, embodying her commitment to being a living work of art in constant flux.

Booker’s unique approach places her within a tradition of modern art that uses found objects and industrial materials, recalling artists like Mark Di Suvero, Louise Nevelson, and Marcel Duchamp. Her dedication to challenging restrictive institutions and her ability to transform discarded materials into powerful artistic statements underscore her significance as an engaged and dynamic artist.