Chakaia Booker - April 7, 2005

Chakaia Booker gave a presentation about her work and life on Thursday, April 7 in the ArtsPlace Performance Hall.

photo by Mick Jeffries

Booker is a native of New Jersey and currently resides in New York City . She has studied African dance, ceramics, weaving, and basketry, and has an undergraduate degree in sociology from Rutgers University . After attending City College of New York and receiving an MFA, Booker became increasingly interested in discarded materials from construction sites, gradually adopting recycled automobile and bicycle tires as her material of choice. From this rubber she creates small as well as large-scale and monumental sculpture, manipulating the material into works that are filled with symbolic content.

photo by Mick Jeffries

Booker has received much international attention abroad and has had a number of solo and group showings at museums and galleries in the U.S. She was chosen for the 2000 Whitney Biennial of American Art and her work is in numerous museum and private collections.