BARBARA WALKER

In 2025, influential gallerist Victoria Miro announced representation of the artist’s work, the same year the artist’s first survey was represented, at The Arnolfini, Bristol, UK (2025).

Early Years and Education

Raised in Birmingham, Walker’s formative years and lived experiences are central to her art practice. She studied Art and Design at the University of Central England, Birmingham, graduating in 1996. She continues to live and work in her hometown, engaging directly with her local community and drawing inspiration from the social, political, and cultural realities that shape her world.

Barbara Walker Artworks

Barbara Walker creates works in graphite, charcoal, painting, and large-scale wall drawings, often making visible those whose lives are overlooked by official histories. Her practice interrogates archival and historical imagery to restore visibility and respect to Black subjects and others marginalised by dominant narratives. Themes in her work range from the policing and surveillance of Black life to war histories, immigration, and questions of self-representation.

Recent works include self-portraits made during Walker’s Venice residency with Victoria Miro, where she engaged with Old Masters such as Veronese and Tintoretto and responded to the experience of being both present and anonymous in the city. Walker’s art is distinguished by empathetic mark-making—at times calm, at other times turbulent—that explores the body’s vulnerability and resilience within shifting social spaces.

Barbara Walker Artworks

Seminal artworks by Barbara Walker include:

• Shock and Awe (2015): Drawings examining the erasure of Black servicemen and women in British war history.
• Vanishing Points (2018): Investigations into the representation of Black figures in museum collections.
• Burden of Proof (2023): Charcoal portraits addressing the Windrush scandal, combining wall drawings with archival immigration documents.
• Self Portrait (Venice) (2025): Series of self-portraits created in dialogue with Old Masters, reflecting on identity and temporality.

Select Public Commissions

• Commissioned major wall drawings for institutions including Tate Britain and The British Museum.
• Site-specific works in Birmingham, Walsall, and Margate.

Select Awards and Accolades

• Turner Prize nominee (2023).
• Winner, Sky Visual Arts Award (2025) for her ‘Being Here’ exhibition.
• Paul Hamlyn Foundation Artist Award (2020).
• Bridget Riley Fellowship, British School at Rome (2020).
• Evelyn Williams Drawing Award (Jerwood Foundation, 2017).

Barbara Walker Exhibitions

Barbara Walker has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally. Her first institutional survey originated at The Whitworth, Manchester (2024), and travelled to the Arnolfini, Bristol (2025). Other notable solo exhibitions have been presented at:

• Cristea Roberts Gallery, London (2022)
• Turner Contemporary, Margate (2019)
• Jerwood Gallery, Hastings (2018)
• Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham (2016)
• New Art Gallery, Walsall (2013)

Select group exhibitions have been presented at the following institutions:

• Tate Britain, London; British Museum, London; Royal Academy of Arts, London
• Yale Center for British Art, US; Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada
• Dakar Biennale, Senegal (2018)
• Lahore Biennale, Pakistan (2020)
• Sharjah Biennial, UAE (2023)

Barbara Walker Gallery Representation

In October 2025, Barbara Walker was announced as a represented artist by Victoria Miro, following a widely praised solo exhibition in Venice and the presentation of new works at Frieze London. This marks a significant partnership between the artist and one of the UK’s most respected contemporary art galleries. You can follow the artist and Victoria Miro on Ocula.

Barbara Walker FAQs

Ocula | 2025