Victoria Miro is delighted to announce the representation of Barbara Walker. The artist’s work was first exhibited at the gallery in a group show in 2023, followed by a solo exhibition this year in the Venice gallery of drawings created during a residency in the city. Significant new works by Walker will be featured in the gallery’s presentation at Frieze London 2025.
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.
Victoria Miro said,‘I have long admired Barbara Walker’s exceptional work. Her intensely empathetic drawings and paintings that bring to the fore stories of belonging, visibility, power, and representation have resonated deeply with me. Barbara’s residency in our Venice studio last year resulted in a remarkable series of self-portraits created in dialogue with Old Masters such as Veronese and Tintoretto, which we exhibited earlier this year. I very much look forward to our new collaboration.’
Barbara Walker said, ‘Since my formative years, I have admired and respected Victoria Miro gallery’s unwavering commitment to its artists and its transformative vision for contemporary art. To now be welcomed into that vision is an honour both surreal and deeply meaningful. I am thrilled to begin this new chapter.’
Image: Portrait of Barbara Walker, 2025
Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro
Photo by Chris Keenan
