Chakaia Booker's Solo Show“Unpacked” Opens At David Nolan Gallery

(MENAFN- USA Art News) Artist Chakaia Booker's solo exhibition,“Unpacked,” is now on view at David Nolan Gallery's new Tribeca location in New York, running through December 19, 2026. This marks the gallery's third dedicated show for the American artist, featuring a monumental tire sculpture, collages, tapestry, and important photographs, offering an in-depth look at her extensive four-decade career.

Booker, recognized as one of the 21st century's most influential creators, has been transforming discarded rubber tires into abstract forms since the 1980s. Her process, which involves slicing, contorting, and assembling the material, was inspired by the tires frequently found after street fires in New York. The use of rubber comments on consumption and industrial waste, while also being a practical, easily repurposed material that avoids landfills.

A central piece in“Unpacked” is It's So Hard to Be Green, a monumental wall sculpture from 2000 that exemplifies Booker's approach to rubber. This work was also recently exhibited at the National Gallery of Art earlier this year. Beyond her sculptures, Booker's works on paper, which she began creating in 2009 with master printer Phil Sanders at Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, explore complex color relationships through puzzled, layered compositions akin to her sculptural methods. Her innovative chine-collé technique, involving hand-torn and cut tinted sheets, has influenced a new generation of artists; some pieces can contain hundreds of fragments and take over six months to complete. Booker continues to develop new arrangements from printing blocks cut in 2009, and one of her collages has inspired a tapestry also featured in the exhibition.

The exhibition also marks the first complete presentation in New York of Booker's“Grave Yard Series,” staged photographs from the 1990s. These images were taken in an abandoned Queens cemetery, a site that had become a dump and salt depot after most graves were relocated. Booker created this series while collecting materials for her first hanging sculpture, The Observance (A Fragmented Beaded Banner) ( 1995 ), and appears in the photographs herself, blending the roles of artist and subject.

This period is particularly significant for Booker, with several public installations concurrently on view. On October 29, the city of Akron, Ohio, known as the“rubber capital of the world,” unveiled a new monumental public sculpture by Booker at Lock 3, marking its first major contemporary public work by a woman. Additionally, her work Brick House ( 2015 ) is on view at New York's Governors Island through 2027, and three large pieces, Serendipity ( 1998 ), Gridlock ( 2008 ), and LIKE ( 2009 ), are celebrating the 40th anniversary of Socrates Sculpture Park through April 2027. The works in“Unpacked” offer a distinct cross-section of Booker's career, showcasing the vibrant and evolving trajectory of her artistic practice.

Source: Artnet News

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