Gestural Expanse

Prints, Sculptures and Books by Chakaia Booker

July 22, 2021 - January 22, 2022

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.

Support due in part from Fargo Moorhead Area Foundation, Arts Midwest GIG Fund, North Dakota State University School of Design, Architecture, and Art; Thomas Jefferson; and Yvonne Condell.
left to right: Chakaia Booker, Untitled- CB.Book #2, 2019, Cover– Woodblock on Bookcloth. Interior– Hand-painted, Lithography and Woodblock Chine Collé and embossment on Hanhnmulhe Copperplate paper, 21 x 14.5 x 1 in. Open 21 x 58 in. courtesy of the artist • Chakaia Booker, Untitled- Cut Sheet, 2011, Chine Collé Woodcut, Cut Paper, Hand Painting, 19 x 16 in. courtesy of the artist • Chakaia Booker, Anonymity, 2007, rubber tires and stainless steel, 100 x 41 x 68 in. courtesy of the artist

Ongoing Exhibitions

No Time For Despair

Ongoing
No Time For Despair

To say that right now is the ideal time to make art that speaks directly to the people about social justice is an understatement. Because the very nature of art is to undertake or assume the role of a healer by shading light on the human condition.

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Bee in Flight

Ongoing
Bee in Flight

Community artist and school art teacher MeLissa Kossick, who guides youth classes at the Museum on art, gardens, and pollinators, has created an enchanting mosaic design in the Creativity Pathway in the Serkland Gallery called Bee in Flight.

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S.P.A.C.E.

Ongoing
S.P.A.C.E.
Kaleidoscope

The S.P.A.C.E. (Sculpture Pad Art Collaborative Experiment) project is a public art initiative undertaken collaboratively between Plains Art Museum, and the college art departments at North Dakota State University, Minnesota State University Moorhead, and Concordia College.

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The North Dakota Mural

Ongoing
The North Dakota Mural

Drawing on his childhood memories of the Great Plains, he created a work that speaks to the wide open spaces, huge vistas, and ocean-like skies of the region.

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Fragile Preservation

Ongoing
Fragile Preservation
A Tallgrass Community

While the Tallgrass Prairie is a community made up of a great diversity of species, Fragile Preservation represents a selection of them.

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