Chakaia Booker is an internationally renowned multidisciplinary abstract artist best known for pioneering the use of recycled rubber tires as a raw material for monumental sculptural works. A fixture of the New York City East Village art scene since the early 1980s, Booker has exhibited across the US, in Europe, Africa, and Asia with works included in more than 40 museum and private collections. Booker’s signature style stems from a modular approach to building an artwork through layering regardless of media or scale. Primarily a sculptor, Booker works with rubber, bronze, and ceramics alongside a dedicated practice in painting and printmaking. Accolades include the 2000 Whitney Biennial, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and inclusion in the seminal exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Epic Abstraction- Pollock to Herrera, which placed the artist rightfully in the company of influential and uniquely identifiable abstractionists Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Ellsworth Kelly, Helen Frankenthaler, Thornton Dial, Louise Nevelson, and Cy Twombly.

The role of the artist is to tell an honest story, drawn from their own experiences, and the events of the past and present that will shape our collective future. The goal of art is to connect with an audience and convey something that will alter their perception of the world around them, their own role within it, and hopefully make a positive impact along the way. My work has focused on ideas of environmentalism, social evolution, materialism, feminism, racism, the political act of making art, and the resilience of the African Diaspora. At my core I am an inventor, looking for new forms and movements to express my ideas, methods to manipulate materials and processes, and ways to connect with an ever-changing audience. I am an abstractionist, uninterested in singular readings of my work. Each viewer’s personal history shapes their reading and experience of a work. I see my role as meeting the viewer where HE OR SHE IS and leading them to where I am. I do this through titling, scale, materiality, physicality, tactility, movement, and suggestion. Ultimately, positive social and societal change comes through collective effort. My artwork is my contribution to this effort.- Chakaia Booker