CHAKAIA BOOKER
(American, b. 1953)
Untitled (CB.1.21)
2021, lithograph and chine colle on embossed paper
numbered 46/100 lower left
signed and dated Chakaia Booker '21 lower right
sheet: 21 x 14 in.
Provenance: Property from The Artis Collection. Anthony and Davida Artis began collecting works by African American artists in 2009, with an early-1900s etching by Henry Ossawa Tanner entitled The Disciples See Christ Walking on the Water. They started the Anthony and Davida Artis Collection of African-American Fine Art in 2014, with a mission to use African-American artists and artworks to educate, encourage, and engage with people from all walks of life.
Anthony and Davida are full-time pastors for a local congregation called, Dedicated Believers Ministries. The artwork in the Artis Collection focuses on faith, family, and faces. The collection is comprised of nearly 80 artworks from over 60 artists, the majority of which represent African-American artists. Their favorites, amongst many artists, include Mary Lee Bendolph and the artists of Gee’s Bend, Sanford Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett, Sedrick Huckaby, Kerry James Marshall, Richard Mayhew, Winfred Rembert, Faith Ringgold, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Alma Woodsey Thomas, emerging artist Charles Wilbert White, and Matthew Owen Wead. Annually the Artis’ sell several works from their collection to make room for new acquisitions.
Other Notes: The artist Chakaia Booker finds beauty in the banal. She weaves, splices, and refashions recycled tires and scrap metal into striking abstract sculptures. The versatility of the medium and forms of her sculptures enable the artists to engage with a variety of socio-political issues. She rose to international acclaim at the 2000 Whitney Biennale with her wall relief It’s So Hard To Be Green (2000), and in 2005 she received a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her sculptures are made in intimate and monumental scales. Much like her sculptures, Booker’s prints are made with an innovative technique. Using tissue-thin paper she adheres layers of her lively marks together through the process of chine collé.