Art / Barbara Walker
‘Monumental retrospective’ Barbara Walker exhibition opens at Arnolfini
Turner Prize-nominated British artist Barbara Walker’s major survey exhibition Being Here opens at Arnolfini on March 8, marking the start of the spring programme at the gallery.
Spanning a period of 30 years, dating from the 1990s, the diversity of works shown encompasses a range of media, from embossed print techniques to experimental painting and drawing.
As one of the most important British contemporary artists, Walker is characterised for her examination of current and historical Black narratives through a lens of social justice, belonging, power and identity.
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Supported by the University of Manchester’s Whitworth Gallery, the exhibition mixes well-known pieces with some that have rarely been seen before.
Attitude, 1998, Barbara Walker, from ‘Private Face exhibited at Midland Arts Centre, Birmingham. Oil on canvas – photo: DACS/Artimage 2024, all rights reserved.
The works range from sensitively rendered pencil drawings rendered on archival documents – playing with themes of visibility and erasure – to large-scale wall charcoal drawings.
All of Walker’s major series will be represented, including the intimate family and community moments depicted in the paintings from Private Face (1998-2002), and the mixed-media drawings of Louder than Words (2006-2009) – made in response to the artist’s son being repeatedly stopped and searched by police.
Shock and Awe (2015-2020) engages with Black servicemen and women overlooked or erased by history; and the two ongoing series Vanishing Point (2018-) and Marking the Moment (2021-) shed new light and emphasis on once marginalised Black figures in paintings by European Old Masters.
Barbara Walker, Parade III, 2017, from the series ‘Shock and Awe’. Graphite on embossed paper. © Barbara Walker. All rights reserved, DACS/Artimage 2024 – photo: Chris Keenan
Walker’s Turner Prize-nominated series Burden of Proof (2022-3) turns a spotlight onto Caribbean-born communities affected by the Windrush scandal.
Also shown is the newly commissioned wallpaper installation, Soft Power (2024), featuring Windrush communities in Manchester alongside landscape and decorative elements.
“To be an artist to create in times of adversity, is, I believe to be optimistic”, says Walker. “In my work as an artist, I have sought to make ‘positive images’, or perhaps images that will have a positive impact.
I Was There, I, 2018, Barbara Walker © Barbara Walker, from the series ‘Shock and Awe’. Graphite on embossed paper. All rights reserved, DACS Artimage – photo: Chris Keenan
“I love working with people who are used to not having their voices heard. People who are often made visible in only the worst ways.
“I want to help make people visibility in the best way possible, by creating affirming images that speak of and to humanity.”
To coincide with the exhibition, an ancillary programme of community and live events is planned.
Barbara Walker in her studio 2022. © Barbara Walker – photo: Chris Keenan
Barbara Walker: Being Here is at Arnolfini from March 8-May 25. The exhibition is free, with donations welcome. The gallery is open Tuesday-Sunday, 11am-6pm.
An illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition, available to purchase from the Arnolfini Bookshop.
More information about what’s on at Arnolfini – including the newly launched spring film programme and all forthcoming events and exhibitions – is available at www.arnolfini.org.uk.
Main photo: Chris Keenan (Barbara Walker in her studio, 2022 – cropped)
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