An artist who was forced to combat critics and their verbal assaults throughout her lengthy career, Kara Walker is a contemporary American visual artist known for her courageous creative investigations of race, stereotypes, gender, unequalness and identity throughout her nation’s history. Rising above the frenzied storm her artwork used to generate, Walker’s work ultimately stimulated greater awareness and pushed conversations about racism in visual culture forward. Kara continuously insisted that her assignment was to shock viewers straight out of their comfort zones and even go as far as make them angry, once remarking the following: I make art for anyone who forgot what it feels like to put up a fight. This alone is a strong enough indication of what her art is all about and the very nature deeply enrooted inside Kara’s work – rebellious spirit, sharp language and an uncompromising relentlessness in saying the right thing.
Kara Elizabeth Walker was born on November 26 during the year of 1969, in Stockton, the Northern city of the U.S. State California. Conducted by her father Larry Walker who was himself a painter, there was never any ambiguity in Walker’s heart – ever since she was three years of age, she knew what to anticipate from the future as she craved to someday be an artist herself. However, she initially dreamed of creating pieces of fine art, which might come as a surprise when you know how her portfolio turned out to be – adjusting to the tune of her personality, Walker’s ambitions and artistic goals changed as she was growing older. Throughout her youth, Kara began experimenting with various avant-garde styles, creating pieces in order to tell a story or make a statement rather than achieve beauty or perfection – in that sense, her work was much closer to the earliest avant-garde movements of Europe than her contemporary fellow artists such as Jasper Johns, who also dabbled in explorations of the early 20th century art. When Walker was asked in 1999 to explain the course of her artistic development, she 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. In the midst of her creative development, Walker moved with her family to Atlanta, Georgia, where she would spend the rest of her teen years and later attend the Atlanta College of Art. During the year of 1991, Kara earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting and printmaking at this prestigious institution. Furthermore, Walker received a Master of Fine Arts degree at the same mediums of painting and printmaking, graduating at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1994.
By Walker’s own acclaim, she pinpointed the exact theme of her art’s preoccupation in a response to pressure and expectation from her instructors – whether by intentions or accident, Walker started focusing on race-specific issues, subject matters that will soon become her recognizable trademark. The same year she obtained a master’s degree at the Rhode Island School of Design, Walker debuted a mural at the Drawing Center in New York City titled as Gone: A Historical Romance of a Civil War as It Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart. Rarely was there a situation where a student is capable of attracting so much attention with her piece as was the case with Kara and her mouthful of a mural – it wasn’t just the theme of the piece that caught the notice of critics, but its notorious form of placing black paper silhouette figures against a white wall. Basically, Gone allowed Walker’s career to be launched with an exclamation point and instantly transformed her into a preeminent artistic voice on the subject of race and racism. Beyond that, Kara’s interests expanded to include sexual themes, combining them with racial issues and having all her material based on portrayals of African Americans in art, literature and historical narratives. In order to make her work as historically precise and therefore more substantial in meaning, Walker became an expert researcher who draws her material from a diverse array of sources, from painted pieces of portraiture to pornographic novels. Kare also relied on other artists who addressed racial stereotypes through creating pieces, referencing and giving them an important role whilst making sure that the African-American art scene stays as interconnected as possible. By relying a bit on other people’s works during these early days of her career gave Walker an important edge that allowed her to simplify the frenzy she was working herself into.
After enjoying what may safely be considered a critical success for her Gone: A Historical Romance of a Civil War as It Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart, Kara Walker was offered a representation with a major gallery, Wooster Gardens – now known by the name of Sikkema Jenkins & Co. A series of subsequent solo exhibitions solidified her status and merely four years later, during 1998, Kara received the MacArthur Foundation Achievement Award – she was actually the youngest recipient ever to recive the Macarthur prize. However, Walker regularly faced considerable opposition to her use of the racial stereotype, with many critics claiming she was prone to going unnecessarily overboard with her art. Amidst the most outspoken critics of Kara’s work at the time was Betye Saar, the artist famous for equipping Aunt Jemima with a rifle in The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, a 1972 piece that is often regarded as one of the most effective and iconic uses of racial stereotype in 20th-century art. Saar claimed she believed Walker took her art a step further than necessary and even spearheaded a campaign questioning Kara’s usage of racist images by asking the following: Are African Americans being betrayed under the guise of art? Walker was even more criticized for her 1996-1997 watercolors project titled Negress Notes – the piece was greeted with a slew of negative reviews objecting to the brutal and sexually graphic content Walker chose to incorporate. Saar yet again led the critical attack on Kara, expressing concerns that the work did little more than perpetuate negative stereotypes, going as far as stating that Walker set the clock back on representations of different races in The United States. It should be noted that there were many experts that stood tall in the defense of Walker and her art, believing in the honesty of motifs and goals used by the young artist and applauding the willingness to expose the ridiculousness of these stereotypes.
Over time, Kara Walker became essentially appreciated for her large-scale tableaux of collaged silhouettes set amidst black and white pastoral landscapes, packed with brutal and harrowing imagery illustrating the origins of slavery in the South. Constantly seeking a perfect balance between humorous and provocative, Walker’s practice confronted social and political themes through painting, illustration, film and text. Despite the numerous verbal attacks on her work during the 1990s, Kara continued to create tirelessly and steadily. What is even more interesting is the fact she managed to keep an extremely low profile despite being considered a key figure of the art scene ever since her early twenties. During 1996, she married a German-born jewelry designer and RISD professor Klaus Burgel, with whom she had a daughter, Octavia – the pair divorced shortly after her birth. Walker’s daughter proved to be another limitless source of inspiration, as Kara did not show any signs of slowing down when it came to creating art. After Octavia was born, it is possible to notice a growing of personal warmth and wit inside her pieces one wouldn’t necessarily expect to find amidst such themes – Kara once admitted that her daughter told her she makes mean art when she was about four years old and that obviously had a slight impact on Walker’s methods.
It should be noted that Walker does not believe that her art will have a redeeming effect on the audience, which means her work can not be interpreted as a tool for fixing but rather as a futile cry for help. Kara once stated the following: I don’t know how much I believe in redemptive stories, even though people want them and strive for them. This leaves a strong note of sourness in her art, showing us that we may be too far from any sort of chane to redeem ourselves. Focusing mostly on installations since the moment she became a mother, Kara’s projects often included light and projection-based pieces that integrate the viewer’s shadow into the very image, making him a dynamic part of the actual installation. Walker’s most formidable project to date was a massive sculptural installation that was displayed for several months at the former Domino Sugar Factory in the summer of 2014. This impressive piece attracted much attention and was one of the most media-covered pieces of art that year. In her spare time, Kara was employed as a professor at Columbia University where she taught aspiring artists how to think and create on their own terms, as well as being a dedicated mentor to emerging artists. Subsequently, Walker worked as Chair of the Visual Arts program at Rutgers University. Over the course of her extraordinary career, Walker had solo exhibitions at a range of institutions, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Tate Liverpool in Liverpool, the Metropolitan Museum of Art of in New York and the Walker Art Museum in Minneapolis.
When you are asked what could have played the crucial role in shaping Kara Walker’s art, you may run into several answers. Some will claim that her father, Larry Walker, had the most influence on what his daughter turned out to be in an artistic sense. Others will claim that the strongest praises must go to the circumstances and the very resistance Walker faced when she was trying to present her work, as that opposition must have surely lit a fire under Kara’s ambitions. However, we must give the ultimate nod to the sheer courage of Kara Walker – being brave enough to provoke aspects of American history nobody wants to be moved from under the rug. She courageously marched forward with more vigor when everyone was telling her to ease up and stand down, as her uncompromising nature allowed her to inject her art with the necessary sharpness and strength without which her work would simply not be the same. These are the aspects of Kara Walker that solidified her place in the notorious chapter of art history and made sure her legacy it to never be forgotten nor ignored.
Featured Image: Kara Walker – Photo of the artist in front of her work – Image via Tina Fineberg
All images via wikiart.org
Year | Exhibition Title | Gallery/Museum | Solo/Group | |
---|---|---|---|---|
2016 | Art from Elsewhere | Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, Bristol | Group | |
2016 | 30 Americans | Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH | Group | |
2016 | Drawing Conclusions | The RISD Museum - University of Rhode Island, Providence, RI | Group | |
2015 | Kara Walker - Go to Hell or Atlanta, Whichever Comes First | Victoria Miro Gallery, London | Solo | |
2015 | Emancipating the Past: Kara Walker's Tales of Slavery and Power | Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, MO | Solo | |
2015 | Kara Walker: Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War | Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, MO | Solo | |
2015 | Kara Walker: Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War | Rollins College, Winter Park, FL | Solo | |
2014 | A Subtlety or the Marvelous Sugar Baby | Domino Sugar Factory, New York City, NY | Solo | |
2014 | Anything but Civil | Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, MO | Solo | |
2014 | Taguchi Art Collection | Matsumoto City Museum of Art, Matsumoto City | Group | |
2014 | Multiplicity | Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Virginia Beach, VA | Group | |
2014 | When the Stars Begin to Fall | The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City, NY | Group | |
2014 | Wrong's What I Do Best | Walter and McBean Galleries at San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA | Group | |
2014 | Hyper-Resemblances | Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York City, NY | Group | |
2014 | When the Stars Begin to Fall | Imagination and the American South - The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City, NY | Group | |
2014 | 30 Americans | Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans - CAC, New Orleans, LA | Group | |
2014 | Our Stories: African American Prints and Drawings | The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH | Group | |
2014 | Binding Desire: Unfolding Artists Books | Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA | Group | |
2013 | Kara Walker | Camden Arts Centre, London | Solo | |
2013 | Emancipating the Past: Kara Walker's Tales of Slavery and Power | Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA | Solo | |
2013 | Kara Walker - Sikkema Jenkins & Co. | New York City, NY | Solo | |
2013 | Rise Up Ye Mighty Race! | The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL | Solo | |
2013 | The Circle Walked Casually | Deutsche Bank KunstHalle, Berlin | Group | |
2013 | SIGNS ON THE ROAD A GROUP EXHIBITION AT THE CAC MÁLAGA | CAC Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Málaga, Málaga | Group | |
2013 | 30 Americans | Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN | Group | |
2013 | Revisioning History | Senior & Shopmaker Gallery, New York City, NY | Group | |
2013 | Difficult Art and the Liberal Arts Imagination | Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery, Nashville, TN | Group | |
2013 | Blues for Smoke | Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH | Group | |
2013 | Auf Zeit - Wandbilder Bildwände | Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld | Group | |
2013 | 30 Americans | Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI | Group | |
2013 | Memphis Social | Apexart, New York City, NY | Group | |
2013 | We Hold These Truths ... | Hofstra University Museum, Hempstead, NY | Group | |
2013 | Roots and Links | The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC | Group | |
2013 | Nunca jamás; historias de niños para adultos | Fundación Valentín De Madariaga, Sevilla | Group | |
2013 | Art And Activism In The U.S. | Pomona College Museum of Art, Claremont, CA | Group | |
2013 | African American Works on Paper | Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI | Group | |
2012 | Kara Walker | The Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Portland, OR | Solo | |
2012 | Kara Walker: Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) | Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, MA | Solo | |
2012 | Pictures of Another Time | KunstTachometer PALMA DE MALLORCA, Palma de Mallorca | Solo | |
2012 | Pictures of Another Time | Driesch:Klonaris, Palma de Mallorca | Solo | |
2012 | Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War, (Annotated) | Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, MO | Solo | |
2012 | So, This is Christmas | Galerie de multiples, GDM, Paris | Group | |
2012 | Cartografías contemporáneas | CaixaForum Barcelona, Barcelona | Group | |
2012 | Cartografías contemporáneas | Dibujando el pensamiento, CaixaForum Madrid, Madrid | Group | |
2012 | Philosophy of Figure | Goya Contemporary, Baltimore, MD | Group | |
2012 | In Search of Time | Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, East Lansing | Group | |
2012 | Blues For Smoke | The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles, CA | Group | |
2012 | Under Pressure: Contemporary Prints from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation | Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE | Group | |
2012 | The First Cut | Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester | Group | |
2012 | Multiplicity | Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR | Group | |
2012 | Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY | Group | |
2012 | Newtopia | Cultuurcentrum Mechelen, Mechelen | Group | |
2012 | Thenceforward, and Forever Free | Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI | Group | |
2012 | Off The Wall: Established Contemporary Emin, Goldin, Hirst, Smith, Walker, Warhol | Contemporary Wing, Washington, DC | Group | |
2012 | OFF THE WALL: STREET ART | Contemporary Wing, Washington, DC | Group | |
2012 | Things Beyond Our Control | Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL | Group | |
2012 | Dark Matters | Goya Contemporary, Baltimore, MD | Group | |
2012 | American Prints Iii | Russell Bowman Art Advisory, Chicago, IL | Group | |
2012 | Faulconer Gallery exhibits national | Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell, IA | Group | |
2012 | The Soul of a City: Memphis Collects African American Art | Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN | Group | |
2012 | 30 Americans | Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA | Group | |
2012 | To remind: works of memory and monument | Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art - MIMA, Middlesbrough | Group | |
2012 | After Tanner: African-American Artists Since 1940 | Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA | Group | |
2011 | Kara Walker | Alan Avery Art Company, Atlanta, GA | Solo | |
2011 | Fall Frum Grace, Miss Pipi´s Blue Tale | Lehmann Maupin, New York City, NY | Solo | |
2011 | Kara E. Walker | Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York City, NY | Solo | |
2011 | Kara Walker - A negress of noteworthy talent | Fondazione Merz, Turin | Solo | |
2011 | Christmas Group Show | Bernier/Eliades Gallery, Athens | Group | |
2011 | Mars vs Venus: Images of Male and Female | Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA | Group | |
2011 | Anxiety’s Edge | Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, HI | Group | |
2011 | NO GOVERNMENT NO CRY | A Project by Kendell Geers - CIAP, Hasselt | Group | |
2011 | BODY AND SOUL - Female American Artists | Amerika Haus Wien, Vienna | Group | |
2010 | Kara Walker: Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War | Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH | Solo | |
2010 | 21st Century: Art in the First Decade | Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, QLD | Group | |
2010 | Cut - Scherenschnitte 1970-2010 | Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg | Group | |
2010 | Winter Show | Goodman Gallery Cape, Cape Town | Group | |
2010 | ECHO: Sampling Visual Culture | Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY | Group | |
2010 | Märchen Kunst | Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Darmstadt | Group | |
2010 | Drawing Time / Le temps du dessin | Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy, Nancy | Group | |
2010 | Le Meilleur des Mondes | MUDAM - Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg | Group | |
2010 | Pandora's Box - Kitchener | Waterloo Art Gallery, Kitchener, ON | Group | |
2010 | Banners of Persuasion - Demons, Yarns & Tales: Tapestries by Contemporary Artists | James Cohan Gallery - New York, New York City, NY | Group | |
2009 | Kara Walker - Estampes | Galerie Lelong - Paris, Paris | Solo | |
2009 | Kara Walker: The Emancipation Approximation | Castellani Art Museum, Lewiston, NY | Solo | |
2009 | MOCA´s First Thirty Years | MOCA Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA | Group | |
2009 | Slash: Paper Under the Knife | Museum of Arts & Design, New York City, NY | Group | |
2009 | Beyond Appearances | Lehman College Art Gallery, New York City, NY | Group | |
2009 | Suddenly This Summer | Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York City, NY | Group | |
2009 | The Old, Weird America: Folk Themes in Contemporary Art | DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA | Group | |
2009 | A GUEST + A HOST = A GHOST | Works from the Dakis Joannou Collection - Deste Foundation -, Athens | Group | |
2009 | The Practice of Joy before Death; It just would not be a party without you | SCARAMOUCHE c/o Fruit and Flower Deli , New York City, NY | Group | |
2009 | Art And Activism In The Twentieth Century:selections From The Permanent Collection | Montgomery Art Center, Claremont, CA | Group | |
2008 | Kara Walker | Kunstforeningen GL Strand, Copenhagen | Solo | |
2008 | Kara Walker: Annotating History | Montgomery Art Center, Claremont, CA | Solo | |
2008 | Kara Walker - MDD | Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle | Solo | |
2008 | Kara Walker - My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love | The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX | Solo | |
2008 | Kara Walker - PRIMERA INDIVIDUAL EN ESPAÑA | CAC Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Málaga, Málaga | Solo | |
2008 | Kara Walker - My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love | UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA | Solo | |
2008 | 30 Americans | Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL | Group | |
2008 | Shading | Galerie de France, Paris | Group | |
2008 | Listen Darling… The World is Yours | Ellipse Foundation, Alcoitão | Group | |
2008 | In the Land of Retinal Delights: The Juxtapoz Factor | Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA | Group | |
2008 | WANÅS 2008: Loss | The Wanas Foundation, Knislinge | Group | |
2008 | The American Evolution - A History through Art | The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC | Group | |
2008 | Cinema Remixed & Reloaded | Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, GA | Group | |
2007 | New work, Kara Walker | Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York City, NY | Solo | |
2007 | Kara Walker - My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love | Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, NY | Solo | |
2007 | Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated) | Fogg Museum, Cambridge, MA | Solo | |
2007 | Kara Walker - Mon Ennemi, Mon Frère, Mon Bourreau, Mon Amour | Musée d´Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris - MAM/ARC, Paris | Solo | |
2007 | Kara Walker - My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love | Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN | Solo | |
2007 | Kara Walker - Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War | Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA | Solo | |
2007 | Passages from History. Recent Contemporary Acquisitions | Tate Modern, London | Group | |
2007 | Contemporary, Cool and Collected | Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC | Group | |
2007 | Global Feminism | Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA | Group | |
2007 | Global Feminisms Remix | Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York City, NY | Group | |
2007 | Re-picturing the Past/Picturing the Present | MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY | Group | |
2007 | Art in America , Now | MOCA Shanghai, Shanghai | Group | |
2007 | Haunted Screens | UB Art Galleries - University of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY | Group | |
2007 | The feminine mysterious | Red Dot Contemporary, West Palm Beach, FL | Group | |
2007 | African-American Art - Selections from the Permanent Collection | Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME | Group | |
2007 | Fantasmagoría - Dibujo en movimiento | Museo Colecciones ICO, Madrid | Group | |
2006 | Kara Walker | Russell Bowman Art Advisory, Chicago, IL | Solo | |
2006 | Kara Walker// A Shut Mouth Catches No Flies | KunstTachometer PALMA DE MALLORCA, Palma de Mallorca | Solo | |
2006 | Kara Walker at the Met - After the Deluge | The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY | Solo | |
2006 | Kara Walker | Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York City, NY | Solo | |
2006 | A Show of Prints | James Kelly Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM | Group | |
2006 | Expressing Identity - American Prints Since 1980 | Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE | Group | |
2006 | C'era una volta un re - ARCOS | Museo di Arte Contemporanea del Sannio, Benevento | Group | |
2006 | Brighton Photo Biennial 2006 | Brighton Photo Biennial, Brighton | Group | |
2006 | All the Best. The Deutsche Bank Collection and Zaha Hadid | Singapore Art Museum, Singapore | Group | |
2006 | Paper Trail - African American Works on Paper | The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA | Group | |
2006 | Group show (opening exhibition) | Ellipse Foundation, Alcoitão | Group | |
2006 | Rethinking Nordic Colonialism | NIFCA - Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art, Helsinki (closed, 2006) | Group | |
2005 | Kara Walker's Song of the South | Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater, Los Angeles, CA | Solo | |
2005 | Kara Walker - Testimony | Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York City, NY | Solo | |
2005 | Picturing the Banjo | The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC | Group | |
2005 | Black Is a Color: African American Art from the Corcoran Gallery of Art | Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, OH | Group | |
2005 | Leonardo Drew - Kara Walker | Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin | Group | |
2005 | Kiss the Frog - The Art of Transformation - | The Museum of Contemporary Art Oslo, Oslo | Group | |
2005 | Getting Emotional | ICA - Institute of Contemporary ArtBoston, Boston, MA | Group | |
2005 | Drawings: 1945 to now | Russell Bowman Art Advisory, Chicago, IL | Group | |
2005 | The Other Mainstream - Selections from the Collection of Mikki and Stanley Weith | ASU Art Museum - Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ | Group | |
2004 | Kara Walker | Galerie Lelong - Paris, Paris | Solo | |
2004 | Fibbergibbet and Mumbo Jumbo - Kara E. Walker in Two Acts | The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA | Solo | |
2004 | Black President - The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti | CAC - Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH | Group | |
2004 | Comic Release | Arthouse at the Jones Center - Contemporary Art for Texas, Austin, TX (closed, 2011) | Group | |
2004 | Provocations - Recent Selections from the Permanent Collection | Bronx Museum of the Arts (BxMA), New York City, NY | Group | |
2004 | ART:21 | Sioux City Art Center, Sioux City, IA | Group | |
2004 | 100 Mona Lisa valent mieux qu | Galerie de multiples - GDM, Paris | Group | |
2004 | 10 Year Anniversary Exhibition | Taka Ishii Gallery - Tokyo, Tokyo | Group | |
2004 | Modern Means: Continuity and Change in Art from 1880 to the Present | Mori Art Museum, Tokyo | Group | |
2004 | Pioneering Spirits - Contemporary Art from Arizona Collections | Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art - SMoCA, Scottsdale, AZ | Group | |
2003 | Kara Walker - The Emancipation Approximation | MAXXI - Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome | Solo | |
2003 | Kara Walker - The Emancipation Approximation | Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY | Solo | |
2003 | Narratives of a Negress: Kara Walker | Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA | Solo | |
2003 | Kara Walker - Excavated from the Black Heart of a Negress (excerpt) | The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City, NY | Solo | |
2003 | Kara Walker - Drawings | Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York City, NY | Solo | |
2003 | Kara Walker: Narratives of a Negress | The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY | Solo | |
2003 | Popular, Pop & Post-Pop: Color Screenprints 1930s to Now | Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA | Group | |
2003 | Black President - The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti | New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York City, NY | Group | |
2003 | Skin Deep | Numark Gallery, Washington, DC (closed, 2006) | Group | |
2003 | Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation | The Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg, PA | Group | |
2002 | Kara Walker - Sammlung Deutsche Bank | Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig - MUMOK , Vienna | Solo | |
2002 | Nat Turner's Revelation (an Important Lesson from our Negro Past You will Likely Forget to Remember) | Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin | Solo | |
2002 | Kara Walker | Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem - MMKA, Arnhem | Solo | |
2002 | Kara Walker - For the Benefit of all the Races of Mankind | Kunstverein Hannover, Hannover | Solo | |
2002 | Kara Walker – Sammlung Deutsche Bank | Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin (closed, 2013) | Solo | |
2002 | Kara Walker - Scherenschnitte und Malerei | Weserburg | Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen | Solo | |
2002 | Kara Walker - An Abbreviated Emancipation | The University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI | Solo | |
2002 | Disturbing Allegories: Graphics by Kara Walker | Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery, Nashville, TN | Solo | |
2002 | Kara Walker | Mannheimer Kunstverein, Mannheim | Solo | |
2002 | True Blue | Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta, GA | Group | |
2002 | Tempo | MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY | Group | |
2002 | Eye in the Sky | Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, NC | Group | |
2002 | Whiteness, A Wayward Construction | Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA | Group | |
2001 | Kara Walker Recent prints | Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA | Solo | |
2001 | Landfall Press - 1970 - 2000 | H&R Block Artspace at Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO | Group | |
2001 | Looking Forward Looking Black | Victoria H. Myhren Gallery, Denver, CO | Group | |
2001 | Autobiographies | Kappatos Gallery, Athens | Group | |
2001 | Schattenrisse | Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus & Kunstbau, Munich | Group | |
2001 | New Acquisitions from the Dakis Joannou Collection | Deste Foundation -, Athens | Group | |
2000 | Art On Paper 2000 | Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC | Group | |
2000 | State of the Art: Recent Gifts and Acquisitions | Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN | Group | |
2000 | (this is not the place) | Ramapo College Art Galleries, Mahwah, NJ | Group | |
2000 | Persuasive Images: Selections from the Art Collections at the University at Albany | University Art Museum University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY | Group | |
1999 | Kara Walker | The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation, Stockholm | Solo | |
1999 | Kara Walker - No Mere Words… | CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, CA | Solo | |
1999 | 6th International İstanbul Biennial 1999 | International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul | Group | |
1998 | Recent Acquisitions and New Work | Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA | Group | |
1998 | Recent Gallery Acquisitions | Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, WA | Group | |
1997 | Kara Walker | Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA | Solo | |
1997 | Kara Walker | The Renaissance Society at The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL | Solo | |
1997 | Pagan' Stories: The Situations of Narrative in Recent Art | Apexart, New York City, NY | Group | |
1997 | The Gaze | Momenta Art, New York City, NY | Group | |
1996 | Conceal/Reveal | Site Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM | Group | |
1995 | Look Away! Look Away! Look Away!! Kara Walker | Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY | Solo | |
1995 | Now is the time | Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York City, NY | Group | |
1994 | Selections Fall 1994: Installations | The Drawing Center, New York City, NY | Group |