MW Gallery is pleased to welcome celebrated sculptor Chakaia Booker for an Artist Talk on December 6, 2025. In this program, the artist will be sharing an overview of her career: work before rubber, early rubber, and rubber work today. About her art, Booker states, “My intention is to translate materials into imagery that will stimulate people to consider themselves as part of their environment—one piece of it…I believe art should dialogue with viewers.”
Chakaia Booker is an internationally renowned and widely collected artist known for creating monumental, abstract works from recycled tires and stainless steel for both the gallery and outdoor public spaces. Booker’s works are included in more than 40 permanent collections, including the Mott-Warsh Collection and the Flint Institute of Arts, and they have been exhibited across the US, in Europe, Africa, and Asia.
The artist’s sculptures are constructed of salvaged rubber, primarily old tires, which she cuts into strips and shapes, then wraps and folds the material into a variety of fluid forms. Booker exploits the qualities of the material—the pattern between the layering of metal threads and rubber-gluing agents, the rust-stained wire, the remaining tread, the movement and color—to define the character of each work that also varies depending on the tire’s age, brand and construction design. The surfaces display elegant, yet surprising patterns using hard-edged to organic flowing shapes, employing flat and high-gloss finishes.
Chakaia Booker (born 1953) is a native of Newark, New Jersey. She earned a BFA in sociology from Rutgers University in 1976 and a MFA from the City College of New York in 1993. Her work was exhibited in the Whitney Biennial in 2000, the “Twentieth Century American Sculpture” exhibition at the White House in 1996, and in many group exhibitions in the United States, Japan, and the Netherlands. She is represented in numerous permanent collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York, Purchase, NY; Newark Museum, Newark, NJ; the Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI; and of course, the Mott-Warsh Collection, Flint, MI. She currently works in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
This program is presented in conjunction with MW Gallery’s exhibition "This Bitter Earth: Living in Harmony with Nature", on view September 12, 2025 through January 24, 2026, which features Booker’s artwork "Minor Illusion". This exhibit features artworks from the Mott-Warsh Collection that reflect on humanity’s complex relationship with our natural world, and with one another. Along with Chakaia Booker, featured artists include Ron Adams, Bisa Butler, Nanette Carter, Nick Cave, Emilio Cruz, Maren Hassinger, Pope.L, Howardena Pindell, Angelbert Metoyer, and Bernard Williams.
"Artist Talk: Chakaia Booker" will take place on Saturday, December 6, 2025, 2:00pm at MW Gallery, located at 815 S. Saginaw St., Flint, MI 48502. Gallery entrance is on E. Court St. This event is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Thursdays and Fridays 11:00am – 6:00pm; Saturdays 11:00am – 5:00pm; and the 2nd Friday of each month 11:00am – 9:00pm for Flint ARTWALK. Please call (810) 835-4900 or visit
http://www.m-wc.org for more information.
Also check out other Arts events in Flint, Exhibitions in Flint, Workshops in Flint.
