Chakaia Booker was born in 1953 in Newark, NJ. She realized her interest in art through her observation and participation in the textile work of her grandmother and sister, and was particularly interested in unconventional patterns. Her earliest works were in the form of utilitarian pottery and woven baskets. She is known for creating wearable art and begins each day by sculpting herself first and then moves that process into the studio.
Booker earned a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J., in 1976 and received her Master of Fine Arts from The City College of New York in New York City in 1993.
Represented by the prestigious Marlborough Gallery, Booker has produced acclaimed shows in sculpture parks including Storm King in New York and Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis, Missouri. She has been included in numerous museum and gallery group exhibitions including the 2001 Whitney Biennial and the Twentieth Century American Sculpture exhibition at the White House in 1996. She has had solo exhibitions at museums such as the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C.; the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College (SUNY), Purchase, New York; the Akron Museum of Art, Akron, Ohio; and the Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, New Jersey. Her artwork can be found in major public collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana; and the Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama, among others. She has been the focus of major articles in Art in America and Sculpture magazines.
She divides her time between New York City and Allentown, Pennsylvania. Another exhibition of her work, "RubberMade: Sculpture by Chakaia Booker," opened June 6th, 2008 at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri.