Kelley Walker (American, born )

Kelley Walker (American, b.1969) is a digital media artist, sculptor, and installation artist who made it onto New York Media's top ten list of Greater New York's artists most likely to succeed. Walker was born in Columbus, GA, but later moved to Tennessee where he earned his BFA from the University of Tennessee in 1995. He is well-known for bringing to light important issues of consumerism and politics; he is also fond of utilizing iconic cultural images and advertising media. One of his most popular pieces is Black Star Press, which is a combination of three canvases, arranged billboard-style, that show images of white and black policemen artistically splattered with white and chocolate paint. This artwork is a blending of graffiti pop, racial unrest, ethical corruption, and mass media. Another famous art project of Walker’s is We Joked That Under the Paving Slabs There Was Gold, which consists of a picture of a collapsed road with a large river of orange, red, and yellow covering parts of the image. This computerized work targets the anxiety within contemporary culture and mocks the pursuit of riches. Walker's art is not only popular in the United States, but in other countries too, such as Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. Some of the major galleries and museums where Walker's art is featured include the Whitney Museum of Art in New York, the Thomas Dane Gallery in London, the Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, the Museum of American Art in New York, the Air de Paris in France. Walker's work consists of a large array of both solo and group exhibitions. Walker often collaborates with fellow artist Wade Guyton (American, b.1972). Guyton and Walker use stenciling, digital scanning, photo-silk screening, and inkjet printing in order to craft a multitude of images for alteration. Walker currently lives and works in New York.

Timeline

1969
Born: Columbus, Georgia
1995
BFA, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Exhibitions

2011
Keeping It Real: Act 4, Material Intelligence, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
2010
Where Do We Go From Here? Selections from Colección Jumex, Contempoary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
2010
Wait for Me at the Bottom of the Pool, curated by Bob Nickas, Jose Martos Gallery, Sagaponack, NY
2010
Held Up By Columns, Renwick Gallery, New York, NY
2010
Permanent Mimesis, curated by Alessandro Rabottini, Galleria Civicia dʼArte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin, Italy
2010
Image Transfer, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA
2010
Kelley Walker, Thomas Dane Gallery, London (solo)
2010
Front Room: Guyton/ Walker, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD (solo)
2010
Kelley Walker, Capitain Petzel, Berlin, Germany (solo)
2010
Whitney on Site: New Commissions Downtown: Guyton/Walker, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (solo)
2010
Picture Industry (Good Bye To All That), Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2010
At Home / Not At Home: Works from the Collection of Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg, CCS Bard, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
2010
Pure, personal or abstract, curated by Alessandro Rabottini, GAM Turino, Italy
2010
Vertically Integrated Manufacturing, Murray Guy, New York, NY
2009
Where Do We Go From Here? Selections from Colección Jumex, Bass Museum of Art, Miami, FL
2009
Beg Borrow and Steal, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL (Walker and Guyton\Walker)
2009
Besides, With, Against, and Yet: Abstraction and The Ready-Made Gesture, curated by Deb Singer, The Kitchen, New York, NY
2009
Auto. Sueno Y Materia, laboral Centro de Arte y Creacion Industrial, Austrias, Spain; Madrid, Spain
2009
Drawing Gifts 2009: 6th Annual Benefit Auction for the Drawing Center, New York, NY
2009
Transitions: Painting at the (other) end of art, Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy, sponsored by Max Mara
2009
Cave Paintings, curated by Bob Nickas, Gallery PSM, Berlin, Germany
2009
Quand la première ivresse des succès bruyants… Château Guiraud, Sauternes, France
2009
Five, Baibakov Art Projects, Moscow, Russia (Walker and Guyton\Walker)
2009
Commentary, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, NY
2009
Biennale de Venezia, Venice (Guyton\Walker)
2009
Espace Louis Vuitton, Paris (Guyton\Walker)
2009
Every Revolution is a Roll of the Dice, curated by Bob Nickas, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, NY
2009
Kelley Walker, Capitain Petzel, Berlin, Germany (solo)
2008
Kelley Walker, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
2008
Kelley Walker, Wiels, Brussels, Belgium (solo)
2008
Kunst im Heim, Capitain & Petzel, Berlin, Germany
2008
Anita Molinero/Cady Noland/Steven Parrino/Kelley Walker Le Spot, Le Havre Centre D’Art Contemporain
2008
Trahison, CAPC Bordeaux, France
2008
Here Is Every: Four Decades of Contemporary Art The Museum of Modern Art, New York
2008
Not Quite How I Remember It, The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada
2008
God is Design , curated by Neville Wakefield, Galpão Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo, Brasil
2008
Second Thoughts, Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
2007
An Atlas of Events, curated by António Pinto Ribeiro, Debra Singer and Esra Sarigedik Öktem, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal
2007
The History of a decade that has not yet been named, Lyon Biennial 2007, Lyon, France
2007
Kelley Walker, Le Magasin-Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Grenoble, France; travelling to WIELS-Centre d’art contemporain, Brussels, Belgium (solo)
2007
Kelley Walker, Continuous Project (with Seth Price), Modern Art Oxford, curated by Suzanne Cotter, Oxford, UK (solo)
2007
I am Scared of America (with Erik van Lieshout), Museum De Hallen Haarlem, Haarlem, The Netherlands (solo)
2007
Mario Diacono Gallery at Ars Libri, Brookline, MA (solo)
2007
Summer Group Show, Richard Telles Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA
2007
NeoIntegrity, curated by Keith Mayerson, Derek Eller Gallery, New York, NY
2007
Compulsive , presented by Jalouse at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2006
Kelley Walker, Galerie Catherine Bastide, Brussels, Belgium (solo)
2006
Black Star Press, Power House Memphis, Memphis, TN (solo)
2006
Andy Warhol and Sonny Liston Fly on Braniff (When you got it, flaunt it.) Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
2006
Planet 22, Geneva, Switzerland
2006
Civil Restitutions, curated by Jeffrey Uslip and Simon Preston, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, England
2006
Defamation of Character, organized by Neville Wakefield, PS1 Contemporary Arts, Queens, NY
2006
The Gold Standard, organized Bob Nickas and Walead Beshty, P.S. 1 Contemporary Arts, Queens, NY
2006
Black/White & Chewing Gum, curated by Gerold Miller, Krobath Wimmer, Vienna, Austria
2006
Shiny: Critical Bling , curated by Helen Molesworrth, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH
2006
USA Today, Royal Academy of Arts in collaboration with The Saatchi Gallery, London, England
2006
Guyton, Price, Smith, Walker , Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
2006
Deaf: From the Audible to the Visible , Galerie Frank Elbaz, Paris, France
2006
Day For Night, Whitney Biennial 2006, Whitney Museum of Art, New York, NY
2005
Crash/Cars, Museo de Arte Contemporanea de Vigo (MARCO), Vigo, Spain
2005
Bridge Freezes Before Road, curated by Neville Wakefield, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY
2005
Invisible Hands and the Common Good, curated by Walead Beshty, Champion Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA
2005
7th Shorjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates
2005
Greater New York 2005, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY
2005
Pictures Are the Problem, curated by Walead Beshty, Pelham Art Center, Pelham, NY
2005
Log Cabin, Artists Space, New York, NY
2005
Situational Prosthetics, New Langton Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
2005
La Salle de Bains, Lyon, France
2004
Last One On is a Soft Jimmy, curated by Kelley Walker, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, NY
2004
The Age of Optimism, curated by Fabrice Stroun, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland
2004
La Lettre Volée, F.R.A.C. Franche-Comté Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dole, France
2004
pOp, curated by Vincent Pécoil, Galerie Francesca Pia, Bern, Switzerland
2004
Tuesday Is Gone, Club 22, Tbilisi, Georgia
2004
Curious Crystals of Unusual Purity, organized by Steve Lafreniere and Bob Nickas, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, NY
2003
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, NY
2003
Le Rayon Noir, Circuit, Lausanne, Switzerland
2003
My People Were Fair and Had Cum in their Hair (but Now They’re Content to Spray Stars from your Boughs), curated by Bob Nickas, Team Gallery, NYC
2003
Melvins, Anton Kern Gallery, NYC
2002
Miss Sissel Kardel, Kelley Walker, Assume Vivid Astro Focus (a.k.a. Eli Sudbrack) , John Connelly Presents, NYC
2002
Painting as Paradox, curated by Lauri Firstenberg, Artists Space, NYC
2002
Retrofit, curated by Lauri Firstenberg, Lombard Freid Fine Arts, NYC
2002
From the Observatory, curated by Bob Nickas, Paula Cooper Gallery, NYC
2001
Alpha Flight, John Connelly Presents, NYC
2001
Exposition W, curated by Robert Nickas, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dole, France
2001
The Bermuda Triangle, Ten in One project space, NYC
2001
Spring 2001, curated by Chivas Clem and Michele Maccarrone, The Fifth International, NYC
2001
Infinite Jest, Ten in One Gallery, NYC
1999
Answer Yes, No, or Don’t Know, curated by Ricci Albenda, Andrew Kreps Gallery, NYC