Chantal Zakari
Chantal Zakari
Strategic Plan, installation at Kingston Gallery, nylon appliqué gonfalon, 50 x 60 inches, 2018.
Chantal Zakari
Leadership Workshop, nylon appliqué gonfalon, 40 x 50 inches, 2018.
Chantal Zakari
Competitive Landscape, digitally printed felt pennant, 18 x 40 inches, 2018.
Chantal Zakari
Funded Growth Through Debt, appliqué gonfalon, 24 x 65 inches, 2018.
Chantal Zakari
SWOT, woven fine detailed patch, 6 inches, 2018.
Chantal Zakari
Shelter in Plates, (in collaboration with Mike Mandel), six stoneware plates, 10.5 inches each, 2013.
Chantal Zakari
Studio FotoGul, from 7 Turkish Artists: Mike Mandel & Chantal Zakari, (in collaboration with Mike Mandel), framed images, 5 x 7 inches each, 2011.
Chantal Zakari
Suzy, from webAffairs, installation at GASP gallery Boston, mosaic ceramic tile mural with video insert, 12 x 13 feet, 2005.
Chantal Zakari
A Catalog of Flags For Academic Strategic Planning, (inside spread featuring Leadership Workshop) artist's publication/photo-book, 20 pages, digital press, 8.25 x 11 inches, 2018.

Artist Statement
In my work I draw upon contemporary social issues by making connections with personal narratives, history, and popular culture. I am inspired by social phenomena and constantly try to position myself in relationship to a public or a sub-culture. In my studio practice I freely combine research methodologies and artistic strategies borrowed from various disciplines such as photography, documentary, performance, storytelling, installation, graphic design, and social interventions.
With my partner and husband Mike Mandel, I actively interract with the media as part of the work. Often the project culminates in an artist's publication. The book format allows me to develop an idea in much greater detail and create dialogues outside art establishments where it can reach a wider audience. Text and language is an inherent part of my work; interviews, personal narrative, found text, contextualizes the imagery.
Artist Bio
Chantal Zakari is an artist, designer and educator; a Turkish-Levantine now residing in the Boston area. With her husband and studio partner Mike Mandel she has self-published several artist's books under the imprint Eighteen Publications: The Turk & The Jew (1997), webAffairs (2005), Taxi Rides (2009), The State of Ata (2010), They Came to Baghdad (2012), and most recently Lockdown Archive (2015). Her work is represented in: Yale University Art of the Book Collection, Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Getty Research Institute Library, The Kinsey Institute Library, Institute of Network Cultures in Amsterdam and the Addison Gallery of American Art. Chantal has also had solo shows in Boston, Baltimore, Atlanta, Los Angeles as well as Izmir and Ankara, Turkey. She has been invited to speak nationally and internationally in Canada, the Netherlands, U.K. and Turkey. She is currently a professor of the Practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston at Tufts University.
Exhibitions
Layers of Memory, group show on Artsy, January 20-February 28, 2021
A Work in Progress, November 4-December 6, 2020
Figuratively Speaking, group show on Artsy, June 24-July 31, 2020
A New Poignancy, group show on Artsy, April 3-18, 2020
Cogent Message, February 27-March 31, 2019
Strategic Planning, January 3-28, 2018
Relay, January 4-29, 2017
Press + Media
Onessimo, Gabby. "The Watertown Asenal and its Ghosts: Chantal Zakari's 'A Work in Progress'." Boston Hassle, November 29, 2020.
Breitrose, Charlie. "Artist's Exhibit Captures the Transformation of the Watertown Arsenal With Historic, Modern Images." Watertown News, November 13, 2020.
Newberry, Emma. "All in the Timing: Chantal Zakari's Work in Progress at Kingston Gallery." Kingston Blog, November 5, 2020.
A Work in Progress, Press Release, September 17, 2020.
McQuaid, Cate. "When art goes viral: Chantal Zakari's new book, "Drop Dead Gorgeous,' takes on the depicting of COVID-19." The Boston Globe, Arts, July 23, 2020.
Tang, Ruijingya. "Chantal Zakari's 'Cogent Message' deconstructs institutional failings." The Tufts Daily, March 14, 2019.
Hagman, Sarah. "Screen Shots: Must See This Spring." The Improper Bostonian, February 22, 2019.
Cogent Message, Press Release, January 3, 2019.
Johnson, Jameson. "Chantal Zakari Raises a Warning Flag." Boston Art Review, January 28, 2018.
McQuaid, Cate. "Chantal Zakari turns pennants into red flag." The Boston Globe, Galleries, January 17, 2018.
Stragetic Planning as Metaphor in Academia, Press Release, October 25, 2017.
"Brandy C. Topher interviews Chantal Zakari about her new work." Kingston Blog Thinking About Art Out Loud, June 20, 2017.
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