Kara Walker After the Deluge

Since she first came to the attention of the art world nearly ten years ago, Kara Walker has become one of the most important artists of her generation. Championed by the art world for her fearless embrace of challenging subject matter, Walker has created a body of work that looks unflinchingly at racial inequality in the United States. Known for her bold images using the traditional silhouette, Walker upends the genteel, Victorian origins of the medium by graphically portraying scenes from the antebellum South to explore the politics of slavery, race, and gender. Inspired by the tragedy that beset the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, Walker has created a volume exploring the interconnectedness of the subject of the sea, race, and poverty by juxtaposing examples of her work and historical works from the 19th century. This unique and important book capitalizes on Walker’s deftness at graphic and visceral storytelling, affording the reader a deeply intimate experience of the difficult themes the artist explores.

Kara Walker was born in Stockton, California. She received an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1994. In 1997, she received the MacArthur Foundation Achievement Award. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon Guggenheim Museum, and the Whitney. She is currently on the faculty of the MFA program at Columbia University.