About Kara Walker

“Kara Walker’s unwieldy imagination is fixated with race in the starkest and most American of terms, black and white, as they were forged in the ante-bellum South, a time not so long ago in a galaxy called here.” – Hamza Walker, Parkett No. 59, 2000

Kara Walker (b. 1969, Stockton, California) is one of the most influential contemporary artists of her generation, internationally renowned for provocative artworks that confront the brutal legacies of slavery, racism, and power in America. Working across silhouettes, drawings, prints, installations, and film, she has built a career spanning over three decades, creating works that challenge viewers to engage with uncomfortable historical truths through striking visual narratives.

Walker's practice is characterized by her use of black paper silhouettes – a technique associated with 19th-century portraiture – which she transforms into large-scale installations depicting scenes of violence, sexuality, and oppression. These artworks draw on antebellum imagery, historical stereotypes, and plantation narratives, creating a tension between the decorative elegance of the silhouette form and the disturbing content it depicts. This approach forces viewers to confront the ongoing impact of slavery and racial violence in contemporary society.

In 1997, at age 28, Walker became one of the youngest recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship (the "Genius Grant"), cementing her position as a leading voice in contemporary art. Her practice has since expanded to include drawings, prints, paintings, film, and monumental public sculptures, all exploring themes of race, gender, sexuality, and historical memory.

In addition to her installations and drawings, Kara Walker has produced a significant body of limited edition prints and multiples that remain highly sought after by collectors worldwide. These signed editions translate her powerful visual language into collectible artworks, offering accessible entry points into her critically engaged practice.

Through her prints, installations, and drawings, Kara Walker continues to be recognized as one of the most important contemporary artists addressing race and history, with artworks held in major museum collections globally.

Auction record: $3.9 million, Sotheby's, 2021

Notable exhibitions

Kara Walker gained early recognition with her inclusion in the Whitney Biennial (1997) and has since exhibited at major institutions worldwide. Her first museum survey, Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love, was organized by the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2007), and traveled to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and other venues.

Major solo exhibitions include A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby at the Domino Sugar Factory, Brooklyn (2014), a monumental public installation that drew over 130,000 visitors; Kara Walker: Dust Jackets for the Niggerati—and Supporting Dissertations at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2023); and Fons Americanus at Tate Modern, London (2019), a large-scale fountain installation addressing colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade.

Her limited edition prints, drawings, and installations have been featured at leading institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Guggenheim Museum; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Her signed prints and original artworks remain highly sought after by collectors worldwide.