Caroline Walker’s large-scale paintings and intimate drawings focus on women within psychologically charged public spaces such as hotels and beauty parlors. As a cohesive body of work, her paintings hint at a larger narrative that is never fully revealed to the viewer.
Walker creates a sense of cinematic narrative in her works by employing staged photo shoots, where she creates scenes with models on location. The photographs serve as a source of imagery for her technically virtuous paintings, the central theme being the human condition in a post-modern and desensitized world. Walker’s intimate scenes build upon the language of city life with the pronounced quality of a voyeuristic gaze. Her quietly charged often luxurious spaces, frame half-told narratives that complicate traditional ideas of the woman as subject. The works explore femininity in our modern, image-conscious age.
Walker creates a sense of cinematic narrative in her works by employing staged photo shoots, where she creates scenes with models on location. The photographs serve as a source of imagery for her technically virtuous paintings, the central theme being the human condition in a post-modern and desensitized world. Walker’s intimate scenes build upon the language of city life with the pronounced quality of a voyeuristic gaze. Her quietly charged often luxurious spaces, frame half-told narratives that complicate traditional ideas of the woman as subject. The works explore femininity in our modern, image-conscious age.
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Banner Magazine speaks to Caroline Walker about her solo show In Every Dream Home.
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Caroline Walker currently lives and works in London, where she completed her MA at the Royal College of Art in 2009. Recent solo exhibitions include GRIMM, Amsterdam; Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles; Space K, Gwacheon; and Marlborough Fine Art, London. She has been included in numerous group shows including Whitechapel Gallery, London; Milan Triennale; Fine Arts Society, London; and Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. Her work is included in international collections including the Saatchi Collection, London; The Franks-Suss Collection, London; Shetland Islands Council; the Woong Yeul Lee Collection, Korea.
CV
Born 1982 in Dunfermline (UK)
Lives and works in London (UK)
Education
2009 MA Painting, Royal College of Art, London (UK)
2004 BA (Hons) Fine Art: Painting, Glasgow School of Art (UK)
Awards
2010 Shortlisted for Threadneedle Painting Prize (UK)
2009 Valerie Beston Young Artist Award, Royal College of Art (UK)
Neville Burston Award, Royal College of Art (UK)
Tom Bendhem Drawing Prize, Royal College of Art (UK)
2008 Jerwood Contemporary Painters (UK)
Dewar Arts Award (UK)
NADFAS Bursary for study at Royal College of Art (UK)
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2020 Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh (UK) [forthcoming]
Midland Arts Centre, Birmingham (UK) [forthcoming]
2019 A Woman Sewing, GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL)
2018 service, GRIMM, New York, NY (US)
Actions, Part 2: Home, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (UK)
Sunset, Anat Egbi, Los Angeles, CA (US)
2017 Painted Ladies, Space K, Gwacheon (KR)
Night Scenes, ProjectB, Milan (IT)
2016 The Racquet Club, GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL)
2015 Bathhouse, Space K, Seoul (KR)
2014 Set Piece, ProjectB Gallery, Milan (IT)
Bathhouse, Budapest Arts Factory (residency), Budapest (HU)
Initiations: Lithographs, Enitharmon Editions, London (UK)
2013 In Every Dream Home, Pitzhanger Manor House and Gallery, London (UK)
Glass to the Wall, ProjectB Gallery, Milan (IT)
2011 Vantage Point, Ana Cristea Gallery, New York, NY (US)
2010 Anonymous Was A Woman, Ivan Gallery, Bucharest (RO)
The Valerie Beston Artist Trust Prizewinner, Marlborough Fine Art, London (UK)
2008 A Sense of Interior, Galleria Glance, Turin (IT)
Selected Group Exhibitions
2019 The Rising Tide: Women at Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, Cambridge (UK) [forthcoming]
María Berrío, Caroline Walker, Flora Yukhnovich, Victoria Miro Gallery, London (UK)
The Conversation, Anat Egbi, Los Angeles, CA (US)
2018 The World’s Your Oyster, ARTUNER, Palazzo Capris, Turin (IT)
In The Company Of, curated by Katy Hessel, TJ Boulting, London (UK)
Dialogues / New Painting from London, GASK, Kutná Hora (CZ)
Actions. The image of the world can be different, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge (UK)
Picturing Women, Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate (UK)
2017 Mingled Spaces, Lychee One, London (UK)
Frieze New York, GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL) | New York, NY (US)
Women Artists: A Conversation, Fine Art Society, London (UK)
Disruptive Imagination: Making Windows Where There Were Once Walls, Gallery of Fine Arts, Ostrava (CZ)
CURRENTS (with Nick Goss and Neil Raitt), curated by Tamar Arnon and Eli Zagury, Lin & Lin Gallery, Taipei
(TW)
2016 ProjectB 10, ProjectB, Milan (IT)
VBAT 10th Anniversary Exhibition, Marlborough Fine Art, London (UK)
A Question of Perspective, GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL)
2015 The Nude in the XX XXI Century, Sotheby’s S|2, London (UK)
The London Open 2015, Whitechapel Gallery, London (UK)
Reality: Modern and Contemporary British Painting, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (UK)
East London Painting Prize Shortlist, The Rum Factory, London (UK)
2014 Reality: Modern and Contemporary British Painting, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich (UK)
This Side of Paradise, Sotheby’s S|2, London (UK)
Painting and Sculpture from Milan Galleries, curated by Francesco Poli, Milan Triennale, Milan (IT)
2013 Nightfall: New Tendencies in Figurative Painting, Rudolfinum, Prague (CZ)
2012 Roots to Shoots: Ten Years of the Dewar Arts Awards, Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh (UK)
Part of a Collection: OUTSET/RCA Acquisitions 2009-2011, Royal College of Art, London (UK)
London Nightfall: New Tendencies in Figurative Painting, MODEM, Debrecen (HU)
Creative London, Space K Gwacheon, Seoul, and Gwangju, South Korea (KR)
Body of Evidence, Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (US)
2011 Some Domestic Incidents: New Painting from Britain, MAC, Birmingham (UK)
Expanded Painting: Some Domestic Incidents, Prague Biennale 5, Prague (CZ)
2010 Love is an Ocular Sickness, Intermedia, CCA, Glasgow (UK)
SV10, Studio Voltaire, London (UK)
2009 Through the Wall, Rochelle School, A Foundation, London (UK)
2008 Interior: Looking Through the Art, Parco Culturale Le Serre, Turin (IT)
Jerwood Contemporary Painters, Jerwood Space, London (UK)
Germinazioni, Palazzo della Penna, Perugia (IT)
2006 John Moores 24, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (UK)
Selected Collections
Akzo Nobel Foundation, Amsterdam (NL)
De Ying Foundation (KR)
EKARD COLLECTION
ING Collection, Amsterdam (NL)
Jimenez-Colon Collection, Ponce (PR)
Kistefos Museum, Jevnaker (NO)
Kolon Group Collection (KR)
OUTSET/RCA acquisitions, Royal College of Art, London (UK)
Rosenblum Collection, Paris (FR)
Saatchi Collection, London (UK)
Shetland Islands Council, Lerwick (UK)
The Franks-Suss Collection, London (UK)
The University of Cambridge, Cambridge (UK)
Woong Yeul Lee Collection, South Korea
Lives and works in London (UK)
Education
2009 MA Painting, Royal College of Art, London (UK)
2004 BA (Hons) Fine Art: Painting, Glasgow School of Art (UK)
Awards
2010 Shortlisted for Threadneedle Painting Prize (UK)
2009 Valerie Beston Young Artist Award, Royal College of Art (UK)
Neville Burston Award, Royal College of Art (UK)
Tom Bendhem Drawing Prize, Royal College of Art (UK)
2008 Jerwood Contemporary Painters (UK)
Dewar Arts Award (UK)
NADFAS Bursary for study at Royal College of Art (UK)
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2020 Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh (UK) [forthcoming]
Midland Arts Centre, Birmingham (UK) [forthcoming]
2019 A Woman Sewing, GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL)
2018 service, GRIMM, New York, NY (US)
Actions, Part 2: Home, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (UK)
Sunset, Anat Egbi, Los Angeles, CA (US)
2017 Painted Ladies, Space K, Gwacheon (KR)
Night Scenes, ProjectB, Milan (IT)
2016 The Racquet Club, GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL)
2015 Bathhouse, Space K, Seoul (KR)
2014 Set Piece, ProjectB Gallery, Milan (IT)
Bathhouse, Budapest Arts Factory (residency), Budapest (HU)
Initiations: Lithographs, Enitharmon Editions, London (UK)
2013 In Every Dream Home, Pitzhanger Manor House and Gallery, London (UK)
Glass to the Wall, ProjectB Gallery, Milan (IT)
2011 Vantage Point, Ana Cristea Gallery, New York, NY (US)
2010 Anonymous Was A Woman, Ivan Gallery, Bucharest (RO)
The Valerie Beston Artist Trust Prizewinner, Marlborough Fine Art, London (UK)
2008 A Sense of Interior, Galleria Glance, Turin (IT)
Selected Group Exhibitions
2019 The Rising Tide: Women at Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, Cambridge (UK) [forthcoming]
María Berrío, Caroline Walker, Flora Yukhnovich, Victoria Miro Gallery, London (UK)
The Conversation, Anat Egbi, Los Angeles, CA (US)
2018 The World’s Your Oyster, ARTUNER, Palazzo Capris, Turin (IT)
In The Company Of, curated by Katy Hessel, TJ Boulting, London (UK)
Dialogues / New Painting from London, GASK, Kutná Hora (CZ)
Actions. The image of the world can be different, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge (UK)
Picturing Women, Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate (UK)
2017 Mingled Spaces, Lychee One, London (UK)
Frieze New York, GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL) | New York, NY (US)
Women Artists: A Conversation, Fine Art Society, London (UK)
Disruptive Imagination: Making Windows Where There Were Once Walls, Gallery of Fine Arts, Ostrava (CZ)
CURRENTS (with Nick Goss and Neil Raitt), curated by Tamar Arnon and Eli Zagury, Lin & Lin Gallery, Taipei
(TW)
2016 ProjectB 10, ProjectB, Milan (IT)
VBAT 10th Anniversary Exhibition, Marlborough Fine Art, London (UK)
A Question of Perspective, GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL)
2015 The Nude in the XX XXI Century, Sotheby’s S|2, London (UK)
The London Open 2015, Whitechapel Gallery, London (UK)
Reality: Modern and Contemporary British Painting, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (UK)
East London Painting Prize Shortlist, The Rum Factory, London (UK)
2014 Reality: Modern and Contemporary British Painting, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich (UK)
This Side of Paradise, Sotheby’s S|2, London (UK)
Painting and Sculpture from Milan Galleries, curated by Francesco Poli, Milan Triennale, Milan (IT)
2013 Nightfall: New Tendencies in Figurative Painting, Rudolfinum, Prague (CZ)
2012 Roots to Shoots: Ten Years of the Dewar Arts Awards, Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh (UK)
Part of a Collection: OUTSET/RCA Acquisitions 2009-2011, Royal College of Art, London (UK)
London Nightfall: New Tendencies in Figurative Painting, MODEM, Debrecen (HU)
Creative London, Space K Gwacheon, Seoul, and Gwangju, South Korea (KR)
Body of Evidence, Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (US)
2011 Some Domestic Incidents: New Painting from Britain, MAC, Birmingham (UK)
Expanded Painting: Some Domestic Incidents, Prague Biennale 5, Prague (CZ)
2010 Love is an Ocular Sickness, Intermedia, CCA, Glasgow (UK)
SV10, Studio Voltaire, London (UK)
2009 Through the Wall, Rochelle School, A Foundation, London (UK)
2008 Interior: Looking Through the Art, Parco Culturale Le Serre, Turin (IT)
Jerwood Contemporary Painters, Jerwood Space, London (UK)
Germinazioni, Palazzo della Penna, Perugia (IT)
2006 John Moores 24, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (UK)
Selected Collections
Akzo Nobel Foundation, Amsterdam (NL)
De Ying Foundation (KR)
EKARD COLLECTION
ING Collection, Amsterdam (NL)
Jimenez-Colon Collection, Ponce (PR)
Kistefos Museum, Jevnaker (NO)
Kolon Group Collection (KR)
OUTSET/RCA acquisitions, Royal College of Art, London (UK)
Rosenblum Collection, Paris (FR)
Saatchi Collection, London (UK)
Shetland Islands Council, Lerwick (UK)
The Franks-Suss Collection, London (UK)
The University of Cambridge, Cambridge (UK)
Woong Yeul Lee Collection, South Korea
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