Chakaia Booker facts for kids

Chakaia Booker (born 1953) is an amazing American sculptor. She is famous for making huge, abstract artworks. You can see her sculptures in art galleries and in outdoor public places.

Her art is in over 40 public collections around the world. Her work has been shown in the United States, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Chakaia Booker received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005. She also won an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Art in 2001.

Booker has lived and worked in New York City since the 1980s. She also has a special studio in Allentown, Pennsylvania. This is where she creates her large sculptures.

Chakaia Booker is best known for using recycled rubber tires in her art. These tires are her main material for sculptures. Using rubber lets her build big pieces that still look like they are moving. She also uses stainless steel and fabric in her art.

Since 2009, Booker has also explored printmaking. She creates many graphic artworks using a method called chine collé. Her printmaking style is similar to how she builds her sculptures. Printmaking is now a regular part of her artistic work.

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. She learned how to sew from her grandmother, aunt, and sister.

Learning to fix and change materials early on helped her art later. This skill was important for her wearable art, ceramics, and sculptures. She often uses patterns and repeated shapes in her work.

Booker earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from Rutgers University in 1976. She later received a master's degree in fine arts from the City College of New York in 1993. She has also studied African dance, ceramics, and weaving. These studies have all influenced her unique art style.

She has lived in New York City's East Village since the early 1980s. In the 1990s, she started working with old construction materials. This led her to use rubber tires, which became her signature style. She has a large studio in Allentown, Pennsylvania, for making big sculptures.

Chakaia Booker's Art Career

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

In the 1980s, Booker started making sculptures that she could wear. She would put herself inside these art pieces like clothing. She said these wearable sculptures gave her energy and good feelings.

In the early 1990s, Booker began creating large outdoor sculptures. She used discarded materials she found at construction sites. This is when she started using rubber tires, which she still uses today.

The different patterns, colors, and widths of tire treads are like a painter's palette for Booker. Her use of tires can make people think about many things. This includes city life or how transportation has changed over time.

Her tire sculptures can also represent African American identity. The different colors and textures of the tires can show the variety of skin tones. Their strength and ability to bounce back can be a symbol of survival. The tire patterns might also remind people of African culture. This includes scarification, body painting, and traditional fabrics.

Booker's art also explores ideas about social class and hard work. It also touches on how we can live in a way that protects the environment. Her piece "Echoes in Black (Industrial Cicatrization)" from 2000 shows emotional scars people carry.

Her 2003 piece "No More Milk and Cookies" makes us think about our consumer society. It asks what happens when we stop buying so much. Another work, "It's So Hard To Be Green" (2000), uses rubber and wood. It shows how challenging it can be to live in a sustainable way.

Her piece "Wonder" also highlights the importance of the environment. Booker gets tires from her hometown and from businesses like Michelin. Michelin sends her used tires from race cars and motorcycles. This shows how she reuses materials that would otherwise be thrown away.

For example, Booker's 2001 piece "Wench (Wrench) III" is a unique sculpture. It transforms a mechanic's wrench into a soft, feathery shape. Her piece "Spirit Hunter" makes us think about life and death.

Works and Exhibitions

Chakaia Booker lives and works in New York City. Her art is part of the permanent collections of many museums. These include the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Akron Art Museum. Her work is also at Cornell University's Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art.

She has shown her art in many group and solo exhibitions. Some places include the Neuberger Museum of Art and the Marlborough gallery. Her art was also in the "Twentieth Century American Sculpture" exhibition at the White House in 1996.

On June 22, 2008, Booker opened "Chaikaia Booker: Mass Transit" in Indianapolis, Indiana. This public art show featured 10 sculptures. She created them after visiting Indianapolis and learning about its history.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts has shown her works several times. These include "The New York Avenue Sculpture Project" (2012) and "FOREFRONT: Chakaia Booker" (2006). The Georgia Museum of Art also displayed her work in an exhibition called "Defiant Beauty" from April 2012 to 2013.

Several of her works were also on display in New York City's Garment District. They were shown from June to November in both 2014 and 2024.

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

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

From 2025 to 2026, her exhibition "Chakaia Booker: Treading New Ground" was on display. It was shown at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Notable Works in Public Collections

Awards and Recognition

Chakaia Booker has received many awards and honors for her art.

Selected Awards

• Merit Award in Public Art, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, 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, New York City, 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