Chantal Zakari is an interdisciplinary artist, designer and a Professor of the Practice in Graphic Arts 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.

            In her work, Zakari draws upon contemporary social issues by making connections through personal narratives, history, and popular culture. Her studio practice combines research methodologies and artistic strategies borrowed from various disciplines such as photography, documentary, performance, storytelling, installation, graphic design, and social interventions. 

            Zakari approaches her work from a conceptual frame and therefore the form is wide ranging; from fabric banners, to ceramic plates, oil paintings, resin cast sculpture and news media ads. Often her projects culminate in artist’s publications. Committed to the creation of artworks that are accessible to a wide audience, her studio practice has embraced the rapid changes in reproduction and distribution of book and printed ephemera. Under the imprint of Eighteen Publications, together with her partner Mike Mandel, they have published hers and their collaborative works; Pictures from the Outside (2023), Drop Dead Gorgeous (2020), Arsenal News (2021), Campaign (2018), Lockdown Archive (2015), They Came to Baghdad (2012), The State of Ata (2010), webAffairs (2005) and The Turk and The Jew (1998). 

           Zakari’s work has been shown at The International Center for Photography (NY), Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston) and other galleries. She has had solo shows in the US and in Turkey. Her work was recognized and reviewed in Artforum, ArtPapers, Afterimage, Wired Magazine, Le Monde, Boston Globe, Lenscratch and other art journals and blogs. Zakari's work is in the collection of Yale University, the Addison Gallery of American Art, and her artist’s books are in many private, public, and rare book collections.

            She is currently serving as chair of Graphic Arts, Photography, Print and Paper at the SMFA @ Tufts University.