ARTIST STATEMENT
I am an interdisciplinary artist, designer and an art educator. My work is project based. I draw from academic research as much as intuitive explorations in the graphic arts. Inspired by contemporary social issues I make connections through personal narratives, history, and popular culture. As I approach my work from a conceptual frame, the form is wide ranging; from photographic prints, to fabric banners, ceramic plates, oil paintings produced in factories, resin cast sculptures and news media ads. Text and language is an inherent part of my work; interviews, personal narrative, found text, all have the potential to contextualize the imagery.
The photobook format allows me to develop an idea in much greater detail and create dialogues outside art establishments where it can reach a wider audience. I am committed to the creation of artworks that are accessible to a wide audience and therefore my studio practice has embraced the rapid changes in reproduction and distribution of artist’s books and printed ephemera. I have conceptualized, designed and self-published several artist’s books and photobooks.As an immigrant to the US I return each year to Turkey with mixed emotions, observing the changes in the political, social and visual landscapes. Turkey always seems to be in an economic boom and crisis at the same time. The building industry is a significant part of the country’s GDP. Since 2023, I have been looking at residential homes, apartment buildings, mosques, and institutional buildings in various stages of construction, abandonment, and destruction. This collection of photographs is a metaphor of how I perceive the country, its politics, and its future.
ARTIST BIO
Chantal Zakari is an interdisciplinary artist, designer and a Professor at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University. Raised in Turkey as part of the Turkish-Levantine community, Zakari received a BFA and MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Zakari draws upon contemporary social issues by making connections through personal narratives, history, and popular culture. Her studio practice freely combines research methodologies and artistic strategies borrowed from photography, documentary, performance, storytelling, installation, graphic design, and social interventions. Often her projects culminate in an artist’s publications. Committed to creating artworks accessible to a wide audience, her studio practice has embraced the rapid changes in the reproduction and distribution of books and printed ephemera.
Under the imprint of Eighteen Publications, together with her partner Mike Mandel, they have published hers and theirs collaborative artist’s books: Accidental Evidence (2025) Pictures from the Outside (2023), Arsenal News (2021), Drop Dead Gorgeous (2020), Campaign (2018), Lockdown Archive (2015), They Came to Baghdad (2012), The State of Ata (2010), webAffairs (2005) and The Turk and The Jew (1998).
Her work was reviewed in Artforum, ArtPapers, Afterimage, Wired, Le Monde, Boston Globe, Lenscratch, amongst other publications. She has shown her work at The ICP NY, ICA Boston, Lothringer13 in Munich, FotoFocus Cincinnati, amongst other venues. Zakari’s work is in the collections of Yale University and the Addison Gallery of American Art, and her artist’s books are in many private, public, and rare book collections.