PopUp Painting’s ‘artist of the week’ is Kara Walker.
Kara Walker is an American artist, who explores themes of race, gender, sexuality and identity in her work.
The artist is best known for her iconic silhouetted figures.
Walker uses the traditional Victorian medium of the silhouette and applies it directly onto the gallery walls, creating a theatrical space in which her unruly cut-paper characters fornicate and inflict violence on one another.
The artist’s work engages with historical narratives, particularly the experience of African Americans in the antebellum American South, and the ways in which these stories have been suppressed, distorted and falsified.
Often provocative and humorous, Walker’s narrative emphasis the ways in which images and narratives can be subject to stereotyping.
The artist works predominantly take the form of painted installations, however Walker also works in drawing, video and sculpture.
We will be featuring Kara Walker’s work all week on our Facebook and Twitter pages, but in the meantime here is a selection of our favourite works by the artist.
