Kara Walker: A Biography
Kara Walker, born November 26th, 1969 in Stockton, California, USA, is a contemporary American artist who earned her bachelor degree from the Atlanta College of Art and her master’s degree at the School of Design in Rode Island. Since then, she has created more than 30 large scale installations, produced hundreds of artworks and presented her work at more than 40 personal exhibitions and galleries.
In 1997 Walker participated in Whitney Biennial, held in New York, and during the same year, at the age of 27, she became the youngest winner of the prestigious MacArthur Grant, which started public discussion around her artworks. Soon thereafter, she was chosen to represent the USA at the Biennale in San Paolo, Brazil (2002). In 2007, the Walker Art Center, which was founded decades before Kara was born, organized an exhibition called “Kara Walker: My Complement, My Oppressor, My Enemy, My Love”. This exhibition became the first large scale museum exposition in the US. Kara Walker lives in New York and she is a professor of visual arts in Columbia University. She is interested in the dark side of American culture and how it manifests itself with racism and a pulsating passion for violence. She is most known for her large murals consisting of cut out of paper silhouettes and representing racial and gender problems. Her works often touch such relevant problems as power, repression, history, race and sexuality.
The Black Star of contemporary American art - this is exactly how they call Kara Walker. Is she a contemporary artist? She is, without a doubt, even though she actually paints in a retro style, showing us the American South of the 19th century, before the civil war, and at the very heart of slavery. Her work shows something that she shouldn’t be able to recreate without being there, even with the help of her grandmother’s stories. It is safe to assume that it is a combination of passion, talent, hard work and a soft soul,
In 1997 Walker participated in Whitney Biennial, held in New York, and during the same year, at the age of 27, she became the youngest winner of the prestigious MacArthur Grant, which started public discussion around her artworks. Soon thereafter, she was chosen to represent the USA at the Biennale in San Paolo, Brazil (2002). In 2007, the Walker Art Center, which was founded decades before Kara was born, organized an exhibition called “Kara Walker: My Complement, My Oppressor, My Enemy, My Love”. This exhibition became the first large scale museum exposition in the US. Kara Walker lives in New York and she is a professor of visual arts in Columbia University. She is interested in the dark side of American culture and how it manifests itself with racism and a pulsating passion for violence. She is most known for her large murals consisting of cut out of paper silhouettes and representing racial and gender problems. Her works often touch such relevant problems as power, repression, history, race and sexuality.
The Black Star of contemporary American art - this is exactly how they call Kara Walker. Is she a contemporary artist? She is, without a doubt, even though she actually paints in a retro style, showing us the American South of the 19th century, before the civil war, and at the very heart of slavery. Her work shows something that she shouldn’t be able to recreate without being there, even with the help of her grandmother’s stories. It is safe to assume that it is a combination of passion, talent, hard work and a soft soul,