William and Anna Jane Schlossman Gallery
Plains Art Museum, in partnership with EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop (RBPMW) in New York City, New York (est. 1948), is honored to present unique prints, large-scale sculpture, and hand-made books in Gestural Expanse: Prints, Sculptures and Books by Chakaia Booker. Chakaia Booker (b.1954, New Jersey) is an internationally acclaimed, New York-based artist known for her monumental, transpiring, public sculptures that explore recycled, deconstructed and reconstructed form – often utilizing shredded, twisted automobile tires from the streets of Manhattan. Booker has worked with the legendary Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop since 2009 and with master printer Justin Sanz in creating over 200 unique and multi-dimensional abstract landscapes which are simultaneously rooted in improvisation, aesthetics, and universality. Booker’s explorations are complemented with selected works from RBPMW archive in Gestural Expanse — including impressive works by Robert Blackburn, Renee Cox, Melvin Edwards, Zarina Hashmi, Maren Hassinger, Glendalys Medina, Mildred Thompson, and others – celebrating the culturally diverse collective art studio, and the fostering and encouragement of innovation and collaboration.
Chakaia Booker is the recipient of numerous awards, grants, and residencies including the Pollock-Krasner Grant, The Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her works have been exhibited throughout the United States, and at the: 2000 Whitney Biennial; Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts; Snite Museum of Art at Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana; as well as in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Booker’s work is in some of the most prominent art collections in the world such as: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C.; and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. Booker earned her BFA in Sociology from Rutgers University, and an MFA from the City College of New York (CUNY). Booker lives in New York City and her studio is located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. In addition to her sculpture and prints, she is acclaimed for her personal wearable sculpture.
