Background
Kara Walker was born in Stockton, California in 1969. Her retired father, Larry Walker, is a formally educated artist, a professor, and an administrator. Her mother worked as an administrative assistant.
Ari Marcopoulos and Kara Walker attend the Gucci show during Milan Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2016/17 on February 24, 2016 in Milan, Italy.
Philippe Vergne and Kara Walker attend WSJ. Magazine's 'Innovator Of The Year' Awards at Museum of Modern Art on November 5, 2014 in New York City.
Kara Walker attends the Museum Of Modern Art's 2015 Party In The Garden at Museum of Modern Art on June 2, 2015 in New York City.
Kara Walker accepts award from Philippe Vergne at WSJ. Magazine's "Innovator Of The Year" Awards at Museum of Modern Art on November 5, 2014 in New York City.
Kara Walker attends the Stella McCartney Spring 2015 Presentation at Elizabeth Street Gardens on June 5, 2014 in New York City.
Artist Kara Walker attends the opening reception for the reinstallation of contemporary art from the collection at MOMA on June 29, 2010 in New York, City.
artist installation artist silhouettist print-maker
Kara Walker was born in Stockton, California in 1969. Her retired father, Larry Walker, is a formally educated artist, a professor, and an administrator. Her mother worked as an administrative assistant.
Walker's family moved to Atlanta, where her father took on a position at Georgia State University. The family settled in Stone Mountain.
Walker received her BFA from the Atlanta College of Art in 1991 and her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1994. Walker found herself uncomfortable and afraid to address race within her art during her early college years. However, she found her voice on this topic while attending Rhode Island School of Design for her Master's, where she began introducing race into her art. She had a distinct worry that having race as the nucleus of her content would be received as "typical" or "obvious."
Walker moved to Fort Greene, Brooklyn in 2002 and has been a professor of visual arts in the MFA program at Columbia University since then. She maintained a studio in the Garment District, Manhattan from 2010 until 2017. In May 2017, she moved her art practice to a studio in Industry City.
In addition to her own practice, Walker served on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA) between 2011 and 2016.
Quotations:
Reflecting on her father's influence, Walker recalls: "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 2½ or 3 that I was an artist just like Dad."
In an interview with New York's Museum of Modern Art, Walker stated: "I guess there was a little bit of a slight rebellion, maybe a little bit of a renegade desire that made me realize at some point in my adolescence that I really liked pictures that told stories of things- genre paintings, historical paintings- the sort of derivatives we get in contemporary society."
Quotes from others about the person
According to The New York Times art critic Holland Cotter, "Nothing about [Walker's] very early life would seem to have predestined her for this task. Born in 1969, she grew up in an integrated California suburb, part of a generation for whom the uplift and fervor of the civil rights movement and the want-it-now anger of Black Power were yesterday's news."Walker moved to her father's native Georgia at the age of 13, when he accepted a position at Georgia State University. This was a culture shock for the young artist: "In sharp contrast with the widespread multi-cultural environment Walker had enjoyed in coastal California, Stone Mountain still held Ku Klux Klan rallies. At her new high school, Walker recalls, "I was called a "nigger", told I looked like a monkey, accused (I didn't know it was an accusation) of being a "Yankee.""
Early in her career, Walker lived in Providence, Rhode Island with her husband, German-born jewelry professor Klaus Bürgel, whom she married in 1996. In 1997, she gave birth to a daughter. The couple separated and their divorce was finalized in 2010.
As of 2017, Walker is in a relationship with photographer and filmmaker Ari Marcopoulos.