Barbara Walker
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About
Barbara Walker MBE, RA, is acclaimed for works that weave contemporary narratives around historical contexts, often employing figuration to invite the viewer to look beyond anonymising acts of categorisation. Growing up in Birmingham, where she lives and works, Walker’s experiences have directly shaped a practice informed by the social, political and cultural realities of her life and community. At its heart, her work is concerned with issues of class, power, gender, race, representation and belonging.
Described by the art historian Eddie Chambers as ‘one of the most talented, productive and committed artists of her generation’, Walker’s work is realised in a variety of formats and media, ranging from graphite studies to paintings on canvas to large scale wall drawings. Challenging conventions of representation and the histories in which they are rooted, she tackles wide-ranging themes such as the policing and surveillance of Black life, twentieth-century war histories and immigration.
Walker frequently uses public and private archives to create works that restore visibility to her subjects, providing an alternative and more balanced interpretation of history. While public collections often present national heritage through the lens of acquisitions and collecting choices made by privileged individuals throughout history, Walker’s work aims to disrupt these limited and often biased viewpoints, offering contemporary viewers opportunities to consider positions beyond those of powerful institutions. At the same time, in her drawings and paintings, the artist offers universally relatable human perspectives on life in Britain and beyond.
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Selected Works
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Biography
Barbara Walker, born in Birmingham in 1964, lives and works in Birmingham, UK.
The artist’s first survey Barbara Walker: Being Here, was presented at The Whitworth, Manchester, UK (2024), travelling to The Arnolfini, Bristol, UK (2025), and it was for this exhibition that Barbara Walker won the Sky Arts Visual Arts Award 2025. She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2023 for her work Burden of Proof, commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation, with the support of The Whitworth, University of Manchester. Recent solo exhibitions include Place, Space and Who, Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK (2019–21); Vanishing Point, Jerwood Gallery, Hastings, UK (2018); Shock and Awe, MAC Birmingham, UK (2016); Sub Urban: New Drawings, curated by Richard Hylton, James Hockey Gallery, University of Creative Arts, Farnham, UK (2015).
Significant selected group exhibitions include Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood, Arnolfini, Bristol, UK; Midlands Arts Centre (MAC), Birmingham, UK; Millenium Gallery, Sheffield, UK; Dundee Contemporary Arts, Scotland (2025); VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art & The George Bernard Shaw Theatre, Carlow, Republic of Ireland (2025–26); The Time is Always Now. Artists Reframe the Black Figure, curated by Ekow Eshun, National Portrait Gallery, UK; The Box, Plymouth UK; The Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA; The Museum of North Carolina, USA (2024); Life Between Islands, Caribbean – British Art, 50s to Now, curated by David A. Bailey and Alex Farquharson, Tate Britain, UK (2021), travelling to Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada (2023); Finding Family, Foundling Museum, London, UK (2023); Exchanges, Whitworth Art Gallery Manchester, UK (2022); Everyday Heroes, The Haywood Gallery, Southbank Centre, London, UK (2020).
In 2023 Walker took part in the Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah, UAE and the second Lahore Biennale, Pakistan, in 2020. In 2017 she exhibited in the Diaspora Pavilion during the 57th Venice Biennale.
Works by the artist are included in the collections of the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, UK, the British Museum, London, UK, Government Art Collection, UK, Jerwood Collection, UK, Leeds Art Gallery, UK, Pallant House Gallery, UK; Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA, Tate, UK, The Fitzwilliam Museum, UK, The Wadsworth Atheneum, USA, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, UK, and Yale Center for British Art, USA, among others.
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News
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Announcing representation of Barbara Walker
October 2, 2025We are delighted to welcome Barbara Walker to the gallery.Read More -
Barbara Walker: Being Here at the Arnolfini, Bristol
March 8, 2025The first major survey exhibition by British artist Barbara Walker , described as one of the most important British artists working today, Being Here (on...Read More -
Barbara Walker talks to AnOther about her major exhibition Being Here
January 29, 2025‘I Was Trying to Deal With the Trauma’ – the artist discusses her work with art historian, curator and writer Alayo Akinkugbe.Read More -
The Art Newspaper features Barbara Walker: Being Here
November 29, 2024‘Barbara Walker's show at the Whitworth makes me feel proud to be Black British’ – Chibundu OnuzoRead More -
Frieze profiles Barbara Walker
October 3, 2024Jamila Abdel-Razek meets an artist redefining portraiture and amplifying Black representation in British art.Read More -
The Guardian interviews Barbara Walker
September 30, 2024As her hard-hitting works go on show in Manchester, the Midlands-based artist reveals to Amelia Gentleman the emotional toll of making such political, personal work.Read More
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Gallery Exhibitions
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Barbara Walker: Any Time, Any Place, Any Where
22 Mar – 3 May 2025 Miro Presents, VeniceCompleted during a recent residency with the gallery in Venice, this new body of work features self-portraits created in dialogue with Old Masters and the experience of being an anonymous figure immersed in the city.Learn More -
Chiaroscuro: A Century of Charcoal
1 Feb – 1 Mar 2025 London Gallery II, Miro Presents, VeniceOn view in a specially designed gallery on Vortic.art, with selected works at Victoria Miro, London and Venice, the exhibition brings together works by over 30 artists made over the past 100 years. The charcoal drawings range from preparatory sketches to fully realised, monumental works.Learn More -
LEDA and the SWAN: a myth of creation and destruction
1 Dec 2023 – 13 Jan 2024 London Gallery II, Miro PresentsCurated by Minna Moore Ede and presented by Vortic Curated and Victoria Miro, an exhibition of primarily new work by sixteen artists across a variety of media – drawing, painting,...Learn More
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Contact Form
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