
Kara Walker
Depicted by Keagan Murphy
November 26, 1969 - Present
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Parents Dana & Larry Walker
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Kara Walker is a prolific and complex American artist who gained
notoriety on the national and international level for her cut-paper
silhouettes depicting historical narratives haunted by sexuality, violence
& subjugation. She uses various mediums including drawing, painting,
text, shadow puppetry, film & sculpture. She uses her art to draw viewers
in and force them to contemplate and examine contemporary racial and
gender stereotypes.
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Kara Walker is from Stockton, California who attended Atlanta College of
Art for her undergraduate degree and received a masters from our very
own Rhode Island School of Design. In the start of her career, she
debuted in a 1994 group exhibition at the Drawing Center with the
25-foot-long wall installation Gone: An Historical Romance of a Civil War
as It Occurred b’tween the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her
Heart (1994). Like so much of Walker’s art, this piece is a reflection and
commentary of the ongoing psychological injury caused by the tragic
legacy of slavery for the black community.
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Walker’s artistic impact and accolades are just as diverse as her chosen
mediums. In 1997, at age 28, Walker became one of the youngest to ever
receive a MacArthur Fellowship. She was also the United States
representative to the Bienal de São Paulo in 2002. Not to mention that in
2012 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Kara
Walker’s dedication to telling the forgotten and suppressed stories of
the African American experience is as bold as it is brave, and she
continues to push viewers to face the hard truths of our pasts.