As we mark forty years of artist-led experimentation, ecological stewardship, and community at Socrates Sculpture Park, we are honored to celebrate alumna artist Chakaia Booker as a 40th Anniversary Gala Honoree.
Chakaia first experimented with modularity and scale at Socrates in 1994 and 1997, pushing the material possibilities of rubber tires into bold, architectonic compositions. Throughout the 2000s, she remained connected to the Park as an artist educator, shaping the next generation of creative voices.
This year, Chakaia will return to the Park with an exhibition of two monumental works - Serendipity (1998) and Gridlock (2008) - reintroducing audiences to the powerful, sinuous forms that have defined her internationally acclaimed practice.
Chakaia’s reengagement with Socrates is a full-circle moment. It offers an opportunity to witness the evolution of a practice first shaped by working onsite at the Park, while reaffirming Socrates' longstanding commitment to creative risk, environmental inquiry, and deep community connection.
Her return invites reflection on the artists who built Socrates through risk, rigor, and vision and on a lineage of Black women artists who have indelibly left their mark on the canon of public art.
We hope you will join us at our 40th Anniversary Gala to celebrate Chakaia and forty years of artists who continue to define what public art can be.
June 4, 2026
