Chakaia Booker @ ICA MUSEUM
ICA Miami presents a comprehensive survey for Chakaia Booker, an artist whose iconic works have been under-recognized for their formal vitality and their contributions to American art. Since 1993 Booker has created a striking, beautiful, and political signature style, assembling cast-off tires into monumental landscapes. Spanning four decades of the artist’s work, this exhibition introduces Booker’s vital visual language while showcasing the variety of her explorations.
The exhibition introduces Booker’s virtuosic practice across a number of mediums. Two series of paintings (from 1991–92 and 2009) see the artist expanding her vocabulary in acrylic on wood, canvas, and paper. The results are vibrant, stirring abstractions that evoke sublime environments and esoteric texts.
Also included are important and experimental works of bronze, ceramic, and plastic assemblage. Photographs from the series “Foundling Warrior Quest” and “Graveyard Series” show the artist combing through deserted city and industrial landscapes, captured among salvaged cables, tires, and other detritus. These photographs are dynamic testaments to the artist’s performative approach to sculpture and to her works’ deep engagement with art historical traditions of landscape and portraiture.
