Kara Walker
New York
USA Eileen Harris Norton Fellow, Visual Arts

Kara Walker confronts race, gender, history, and sexuality in her work. She is best known for her cut-paper silhouettes, which are often employed in wall-size installations that have a narrative quality that evokes film or history painting. She uses this 19th-century technique to expose the violent history of American race relations, employing a vocabulary that draws on the Antebellum South and the grotesque. She has also produced shadow-puppet films in which she reimagines historical events such as the Middle Passage, as well as drawings whose subject matter is more contemporary and autobiographical. A.C.

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Portrait photo courtesy Kara Walker
Authenticating the Artifact, 2007, mixed media, cut paper, and acrylic on gessoed panel, 60” x 84” x 2”; photograph by Luciano Fileti; photo courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins & Co.