Artist 34: Kara Walker

Kara Walker, born 1969 in California, this African American artist is best known for her black and white cut-paper silhouettes.  She was introduced to art early on in her life, her father is a formally trained artist and allowed her to sit with him as he worked.  Walker’s work addresses some very highly controversial themes throughout history.  In 1991 she received her Bachelors in Fine Arts from Atlanta College of Art, three years later she received her Masters in Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design.  In that same year, 1994, her mural “Gone, An Historical Romance of a Civil Was as it Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart”, gave her the attention of the world.  In 1996, at the age of 27 she became the youngest recipient of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s “genius” grant.  In 2007 she had her first full-scale exhibition.  She now lives in New York and she teaches visual arts in the MFA program at Columbia University.  During her art career she has worked in a number of different mediums but it is her black and white cut-paper silhouettes that are her most recognizable work.  She confronts many large issues head on, she takes issues like rice, gender, sexuality, violence and identity and pairs that with a mix of nightmarish yet fantastical images paired with a cinematic feel.