Booker's exhibition "Surface Pressure" concluded its extended run at Sarasota Art Museum.
The exhibition Chakaia Booker: Surface Pressure closed on May 2, 2020, at the Sarasota Art Museum, concluding an extended run of nearly six months that had begun the previous November. The exhibition's lengthy duration reflected the scale and ambition of the presentation, which showcased a wide array of Booker's tire and mixed-media sculptures within the museum's galleries.
Notably, the exhibition's final weeks overlapped with the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, a period during which museums worldwide faced closures and disruptions to public programming. Despite these unprecedented circumstances, the show's closing date marked the conclusion of a significant early exhibition in the history of the Sarasota Art Museum, which had opened its doors only shortly before hosting Booker's work.
The exhibition's run — spanning the museum's formative period — cemented Booker's continued relevance within the contemporary art world more than three decades after she began working with tire rubber in the late 1980s. Surface Pressure stands as a testament to her enduring ability to command major institutional exhibitions across the United States, from outdoor sculpture parks to university galleries to newly established museums.