Marlborough Chelsea 545 West 25th Street New York, NY 10001 t. 212.463.8634 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE f. 212.463.9658 www.marlboroughgallery.com For press inquiries please contact Annie Rochfort at Marlborough Gallery at 212.541.4900 [email protected] or [email protected]

Chakaia Booker: Conjugal Visit Marlborough Chelsea / May 10 - June 9, 2012

The Directors of Marlborough Gallery are pleased to Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1953, Chakaia Booker announce that a major exhibition of recent works by realized her interest in art through her observation and Chakaia Booker will open at Marlborough Chelsea, participation in the textile work of her grandmother and 545 West 25th Street, with a reception on May 10 sister. Her earliest works were in the form of utilitarian pottery from 6 to 8 PM and continue through June 9, 2012. and woven baskets and she soon incorporated a vast variety of found objects and raw materials in her aesthetic practice. The exhibition will feature sculptures in the artist’s signature Booker’s formal education, in sociology, was completed at medium of sliced, cut and reconstructed rubber and rubber in 1976 and later at the City College of t i r e s , a n d w i l l s h o w c a s e t h e c o m p l e t e r a n g e o f B o o k e r ’s f o r m a t s , New York, where she earned an MFA in 1993. The artist including pedestal pieces, wall-mounted reliefs, and large-scale lives and works in Manhattan and Allentown, Pennsylvania. freestanding works as well as two dimensional digital prints. Chakaia Booker has exhibited both nationally and Chakaia Booker has gained significant acclaim for her highly internationally. Recent exhibitions of her sculpture include expressive, socially evocative sculptures made principally Forefront: Chakaia Booker at the National Museum of from rubber tires. With good grace Booker has accepted Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, 2006; Rubber Made: the moniker “Queen of Rubber Soul.” Her use of rubber Sculpture by Chakaia Booker at the Kemper Museum of as a trademark sculptural material began in the mid-1990s Contemporary Art, Kansas City, 2008; Chakaia Booker: Mass and she has since recycled countless Goodyears, Firestones Transit, a public art installation in downtown , and Michelins into highly expressive sculptures, creating commissioned by the Arts Council of Indianapolis, 2008- an amazing variety in texture and form and drawing upon 2009; Inside Out at the Elmhurst Art Museum, Chicago, African influences such as tribal body paint, scarification, 2008-2009; Chakaia Booker: Crossover Effects at the Katonah and textiles. Regarding her work Booker recently stated: Museum of Art, New York, 2009; On Site: Chakaia Booker, I look at the material like a painter. A painter has a Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, 2010; Chakaia Booker: palette and the palette has color. Each color has energy In and Out, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, and that is how the painter begins the composition; Lincoln, MA, 2010; and Chakaia Booker: Eminent Domain, part of it is through this energy. On my palette I have Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, 2010. Most recently, texture. I have the tires, which have many variations Booker has been selected as the second artist for the New of textures from being busted and worn, and whatever York Avenue Sculpture Project by the National Museum of tread patterns remain after they have been worn and used Women in the Arts. Her sculptures will be displayed on the by the previous owner. So all of that feeds my energy, famous avenue in Washington, DC through March 2012. which in turn helps to inform me on how this energy can be used to create the composition of the sculpture. Booker was a 2002 recipient of the prestigious Pollock- Krasner Foundation Award, and a 2005 recipient In her essay on Booker’s work for the Katonah Art of a Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Museum, NY, curator Lowery Sims points out that: Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in New York. Booker’s ambition and achievement locates her in the Booker’s work can be found in numerous public class of sculptors such as Louise Nevelson, Ursula von collections, including the Birmingham Museum of Rydingsvard or Nancy Rubin. And her working method Art, AL; Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, aligns her with their distinctively materialist approach Grand Rapids, MI; The Metropolitan Museum of to their work. The story of Booker’s initial engagement Art, New York, NY; National Aeronautics and Space with tires is by now urban history: how she was able Administration, Washington, DC; The Newark Museum, to take advantage of discarded tires that littered the NJ; New Orleans Museum of Art, LA; Museum landscape of . This relegates them to of Art, NY; Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, NY; what this writer has described as ‘Rumpelstilskin’s and The , New York, NY. Gold’ - something of value created out of nothing.

Marlborough Gallery/ International Public Art Ltd., 40 West 57th St, New York, NY 10019 t. 212.541.4900 f. 212.541.4948 [email protected]

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