Barbara Walker

Barbara Walker MBE (born Birmingham, UK) is a British artist who lives and works in Birmingham. The art historian Eddie Chambers calls her "one of the most talented, productive and committed artists of her generation". She is known for colossal figurative drawings and paintings, often drawn directly onto the walls of the gallery, that frequently explore themes of documentation and recording, and erasure. Walker describes her work as social documentary, intended to address misunderstandings and stereotypes about the African-Caribbean community in Britain.

Walker grew in a Jamaican family in Birmingham and graduated from the University of Central England, Birmingham in 1996. Her work is part of private and public collections including the Arts Council Collection and the Usher Gallery. She was selected to be included in the first Diaspora Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale 2017.

In 2017 Walker was awarded the Evelyn Williams Drawing Award, part of the Jerwood Drawing Prize. Walker was awarded the 2020 Bridget Riley Fellowship at The British School at Rome.

She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to British Art.

Selected exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

• Shock and Awe, curated by Lynda Morris and Craig Ashley, mac, Birmingham, 2016
• Louder Than Words, Unit 2 Gallery, London Metropolitan University, 2006
• Testimonies, Queen’s Hall, Northumberland, 2005
• Private Face, EMACA, Nottingham, 2002

Group exhibitions

• Protest and Remembrance, Alan Cristea Gallery, 2019
• UNTITLED: Art on the Conditions of Our Time, New Art Exchange, 2017
• The Meaning of Style: Black British Style, and the underlying political and social environment, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, 2010
• Families, Oxford House, London, 2006
• Birmingham Artsfest 06, 2006
• True Stories, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, 2003
• Intervention Project, Birmingham, 2002