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Kara Walker (born November 26, 1969) is a contemporary American artist who is best known for her exploration of race, gender, sexuality, and identity in her artworks.

Walker was born in San Jose, California. Her retired father is a formally educated artist, a professor, and an administrator. Her mother worked as an administrative assistant and was inspired by her family to reveal her own artistic talents. Walker's education includes an MFA at Rhode Island School of Design in Painting/Printmaking, and a BFA in Painting/Printmaking at Atlanta College of Art. Some of Walker's exhibitions have been shown at The Renaissance Society in Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Walker has also been shown internationally and featured on PBS. Her work graces the cover of musician Arto Lindsay's recording, Salt (2004).

Walker's silhouette images work to bridge unfinished folklore in the Antebellum South, raising identity and gender issues for African American women in particular. However, because of her truthful approach to the topic, Walker's artwork is reminiscent of Andy Warhol's Pop Art during the 1960s (indeed, Walker says she adored Warhol growing up as a child). Her nightmarish yet fantastical images incorporate a cinematic feel. Walker uses images from historical textbooks to show how white people depicted African American slaves during Antebellum South. Some of her images are grotesque, for example, in The Battle of Atlanta, [1] a white man, presumably a Southern soldier, is raping a black girl while her brother watches in shock, a white child is about to insert his sword into a nearly-lynched black woman's vagina, and a male black slave rains tears all over an adolescent white boy.

Walker lives in New York and is on the faculty of the MFA program at Columbia University.

Kara Walker: Pictures From Another Time. Ed. Goldbaum, Karen. Seattle: Marquand Books, Inc. ISBN 1-891024-50-7 It is certainly just a twist of fate, but 'kara' means 'black' in Turkish language. Kara Walker (born November 26, 1969) is a contemporary American artist who is best known for her representation of race, gender, sexuality, and identity in her silhouette.

Walker was born in Stockton, California. Her retired father is a formally educated artist, a professor, and an administrator. Her mother worked as an administrative assistant and was inspired by her family to reveal her own artistic talents. Kara Walker's extensive education includes an MFA at Rhode Island School of Design in Painting/Printmaking, and a BFA in Painting/Printmaking at Atlanta College of Art. Some of Walker's exhibitions have been shown at The Renaissance Society in Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art as well as the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, she has also been shown internationally and featured on PBS. Her work graces the cover of musician Arto Lindsay's recording, Salt (2004).

Walker's silhouette images work to bridge unfinished folklore in the Antebellum South, raising identity and gender issues for African American women in particular. However, because of her truthful approach to the topic, Walker's artwork is reminiscent of Andy Warhol's Pop Art during the 1960s (indeed, Walker says she adored Warhol growing up as a child). Her nightmarish yet extraordinarily good images are combined with a cinematic feel. Walker uses images from historical textbooks to show how white people depicted African American slaves during Antebellum South. Some of her images are distorted, for example, in The Battle of Atlanta, [1] a white man, presumably a Southern soldier, is raping a black girl while her brother watches in shock, a white child is about to insert his sword into a nearly-lynched black woman's vagina, and a male black slave rains tears all over an adolescent white boy.

Walker lives in New York and is on the faculty of the MFA program at Columbia University.

• An interview with Kara Walker
• Biographical, press, and works information
• Kara Walker's work information at the Walker Art Center
• Kara Walker's exhibition at The Renaissance Society, 1997
• Kara E. Walker's Song of the South at REDCAT

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