MHA Times

Chairman Fox's Weekly Projects Update

Press Release

For Immediate Release (July 2021)

Fargo, North Dakota – Plains Art Museum, in partnership with EFARobert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop (RBPMW) in New York City, New York (est. 1948), is honored to

present unique prints, large-scalesculpture, and hand-made books by renowned artist Chakaia Booker. Gestural Expanse: Prints,Sculptures and Books by Chakaia Booker is now open through January 22, 2022 in the Museum’s William and Anna Schlossman gallery.

Chakaia Booker (b.1954, New Jersey) is an internationally acclaimed, New York-based artist known for her monumental, transpiring, public sculptures that explore recycled, deconstructedand reconstructed form – often utilizing shredded, twisted automobile tires from the streets of Manhattan. Expanding on her work as a sculptor, Booker has worked with the legendary Robert BlackburnPrintmaking Workshop since 2009. and with master printer Justin Sanz in creating over 200 unique and multi-dimensional abstract landscapes which are simultaneously rooted inimprovisation, 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 andcollaboration.

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: 2000Whitney Biennial; Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts; Snite Museum of Art atNotre 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.; andthe 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 sculptureand prints, she is acclaimed for her personal wearable sculpture. 

Gestural Expanse is made possible in part through support from Fargo Moorhead Area Foundation, Arts Midwest GIG Fund, North Dakota StateUniversity School of Design, Architecture, and Art; Thomas Jefferson; and Yvonne Condell.

Plains Art Museum is the largest and only accredited art museum in North Dakota. It is your nonprofit museum an education center, supported by over 800 individuals and organizations. The Museum and its Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center of Creativity are located at 704 First AvenueNorth in downtown Fargo. For more information about visiting or supporting your art museum, visit plainsart.org.

Contact: Andy Maus, Museum Director / CEO, [email protected], 701.551.6123.

Chakaia Booker, Untitled- Cut Sheet, 2011, Chine Collé Woodcut, Cut Paper, Hand Painting, Courtesy of EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Archive

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