Chakaia Booker facts for kids

Chakaia Booker (born 1953) is an American artist. She is famous for making large, abstract sculptures. She often uses recycled rubber tires in her art. Her amazing artworks can be found in over 40 public collections. They have been shown in many places around the world. These places include the United States, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Chakaia Booker was part of the important 2000 Whitney Biennial art show. She also received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005. This is a special award for talented people. In 2001, she won an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Since the 1980s, Booker has lived and worked in New York City's East Village. She also has a large studio in Allentown, Pennsylvania. This is where she creates her big sculptures.

Booker is best known for using old rubber tires in new ways. These tires are her main material for sculptures. Rubber lets her build huge artworks in parts. Yet, her art still looks like it's moving and flowing. Besides rubber tires, Booker also uses stainless steel and fabric in her sculptures. In 2009, Booker started exploring printmaking. She made many graphic artworks. She often used a method called chine collé. Her way of printmaking is like how she builds her sculptures. Printmaking is now a regular part of her art. She has found special ways to use materials and processes, just like with her rubber art.

Early Life and Education

Chakaia Booker was born in 1953 in Newark, New Jersey. She grew up in a nearby town called East Orange, New Jersey. From a young age, she learned to sew from her grandmother, aunt, and sister. Learning to fix and change materials early on was very important for Booker. It helped her later with her art. This included wearable art, ceramics, and sculptures. She often used patterns, repetition, and building things in parts.

Booker earned a BA degree in sociology from Rutgers University in 1976. Later, she received a MFA degree from the City College of New York in 1993. She has also studied many other things. These include African dance, ceramics, weaving, basketry, and t'ai chi. All these studies have influenced her unique art style.

She has lived and worked in New York City’s East Village since the early 1980s. In the 1990s, she started working with old construction materials. She also began using rubber tires. This led to her special artistic style. She has a large studio in Allentown, Pennsylvania. This is where she makes her big outdoor artworks. Booker has also helped lead important art groups. These include the International Sculpture Center and Socrates Sculpture Park.

Creating Art with Recycled Materials

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

In the 1980s, Booker made sculptures that people could wear. She could put them on like clothes. She said these wearable sculptures gave her energy and feeling. In the early 1990s, Booker started making large outdoor sculptures. She used discarded materials from construction sites. This included rubber tires, which she still uses today.

The different tread patterns, colors, and sizes of tires are like a painter's palette for Booker. Using tires in her art can mean many things. It can show ideas about art, politics, culture, and money. The tires might remind people of the busy streets of Northern New Jersey. Or they might show how transportation has changed since the industrial age.

Booker's tire sculptures can also represent African American identity. The different colors and textures of the tires can be seen as different skin tones. Their strength can show how African Americans have survived in the modern world. Tire patterns in her art might also connect to African culture. This includes scarification, body painting, and traditional fabrics.

Booker's art also explores ideas about social class, work, and how we use resources. Her piece "Echoes in Black (Industrial Cicatrization)" was in the 2000 Whitney Biennial. It talks about the emotional and physical scars people get in life. Her work "No More Milk and Cookies" (2003) asks questions about our society. It makes us think about what happens when we stop buying so much.

Her piece "It’s So Hard To Be Green" (2000) is made of rubber and wood. It has many textures and shapes. This artwork shows how difficult it can be to live in a way that helps the environment. Another piece, "Wonder," also focuses on protecting the environment. Booker even gets used tires from companies like Michelin. These are tires from race cars and motorcycles. This shows how she reuses materials that others throw away. Tires also connect to hard work in car repair. They show how tires become waste after they are used. For example, Booker's 2001 piece "Wench (Wrench) III" is a surprising sculpture. It turns a strong, masculine mechanic's wrench into a soft, feminine feather boa. Her piece "Spirit Hunter" reminds us of life and death.

Artworks and Exhibitions

Chakaia Booker lives and works in New York City. Her art is part of the permanent collections in many museums. These include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Akron Art Museum, and Cornell University's Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. Her work is also in galleries like Max Protetch and June Kelly in New York. She has shown her art in many group and solo exhibitions. These include places like the Neuberger Museum of Art and the PS 1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens. Her art was also shown at the "Twentieth Century American Sculpture" exhibition at the White House in 1996.

On June 22, 2008, Booker showed "Chaikaia Booker: Mass Transit" in Indianapolis, Indiana. This public art show featured 10 sculptures. Booker created them after visiting Indianapolis. She researched the city's history and culture.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts has shown her works in several exhibitions. These include The New York Avenue Sculpture Project (2012) and FOREFRONT: Chakaia Booker (2006). The Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, GA also showed her work. This exhibition was called Defiant Beauty. It was on display from April 2012 to 2013. Some of her artworks were also shown in New York City's Garment District in 2014 and 2024.

Booker is one of nine modern artists whose work is on display at the Renwick Gallery's Wonder Gallery. This gallery is part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C.. The sculpture shown there is "It's So Hard to be Green." This piece was also at the 2000 Whitney Museum Biennial. Booker's sculpture Position Preferred was shown at the McNay Art Museum in 2020.

In May 2021, her exhibition "Chakaia Booker: The Observance" opened. It was at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami. In 2021, Oklahoma Contemporary showed her Shaved Portions exhibit.

Notable Works in Public Collections

Awards and Special Projects

Chakaia Booker has received many important awards and opportunities for her art.

Selected Awards

• Merit Award in Public Art, Indianapolis, 2008
• Fellowship for Fine Arts, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, New York City, 2005
• Design Award, Art Commission of the City of New York, 2005
• Grant, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York City, 2002
• Arts and Letters Award, Academy of Arts and Letters, New York City, 2001
• Grant, Anonymous Was A Woman Award, New York City, 2000
• Included in the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, 2000
• Award, Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. Art Fund, New York City, 1999
• Gregory Millard Fellow: Sculpture, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York City, 1997
• The Joan Mitchell Foundation, Painters and Sculptors Grant, New York City, 1995
• Artist-in-Residence, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City, 1995
• Commission, NASA Art Program, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., 1994
• Therese Ralston McCabe Connor Award, City College of New York, New York City, 1992
• Grant, Artists Space, New York City, 1988

Selected Commissions

• National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C., 2016
• Millennium Park, Chicago, 2016
• Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C., 2015
• Weeksville Heritage Center, Brooklyn, 2013