Project 2: Kara Walker

This exhibition explores the narratives of race, gender, and sexuality in the work of leading North American artist Kara Walker. It is the first monographic exhibition of Walker’s art to be held in Australia. Major new acquisitions will be shown for the first time in Canberra alongside a selection of works curated by the artist exclusively for the National Gallery.

With a contemporary art practice that spans over two decades, Kara Walker is recognised internationally for her graphically striking work with black paper silhouettes and her subversive representations of the racist imaginary developed and popularised during the antebellum era of slavery.

Showing her protagonists – both black and white – entangled in the creation of North America’s mythology of freedom and liberation, Kara Walker challenges her viewers to critically examine the conventionally understood boundaries between history and present, the perpetuation of racist and gender stereotypes in popular culture, and the global systems of oppression and exploitation brought about and enforced through colonial enterprises.

Project 2: Kara Walker is a Know My Name project.

Curator:  Sally Foster, Senior Curator, Prints and Drawings