Kara Walker
Contemporary American ArtistKnown for her room-sized Victorian silhouetted figures cut out of black paper
Early Years / Family Life
Kara Walkerss family moved from California to Georgia when she was 13 years old. In Georgia her mother worked as an administrative assistant and her father, artist Larry Walker, worked as a professor at Georgia State University.“One of my earliest memories involves sitting on my dad’s lap in his studio in the garage of our house and watching him draw. I remember thinking: ‘I want to do that, too,’ and I pretty much decided then and there at age 2 ½ or 3 that I was an artist just like Dad.”
Education
1991 / Atlanta College of Art- BFA1994 / Rhode Island School of Design- MFA
Influences
early Americanaportraiture
miniatures
colonial history
Themes in Artwork
sexualitygender
race
slavery
history
identity
stereotypes
power
repression
Timeline
- 1969 / birth on November 26 in Stockton, CA
- 1982 / family moves to the suburbs outside of Atlanta, Georgia
- 1991 / receives a BFA in Painting/Printmaking from the Atlanta College of Art
- 1993 / begins experimenting with drawing silhouettes
- 1994 / receives Awards of Excellence II grant frm the Rhode Island School of Design
- 1994 / receives an MFA in Painting/Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design
- 1994 / exhibits her first large scale cut-paper silhoutte mural
- 1997 / included in the Biennial exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York
- 1997 / receives the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Achievement Award and Foundation Grant
- 2002 / United States representative to the Sao Paolo Beinal in Brazil
- 2004 / receives the Lucella Artist Award from the Smithsonian American Art Museum
- 2007 / listed as one of Time Magazine's 100 Most influential People in the world
Examples of Work
Cut / 1998 / cut paper on wall / 88 x 54 inches
The Emancipation Approximation (scene 9) / 1999 to 2000 / silkscreen / 44 x 34 inches
African/American / 1998 / linoleum cut / 36 5/8 x 42 inches