Exhibitions
The IVAM hosts one of the most comprehensive exhibitions of Kara Walker in Europe.
On September 25, the IVAM will open an exceptional exhibition dedicated to Kara Walker, one of the most important artists on the international contemporary scene. Conceived and produced by the Alicante Museum of Contemporary Art (MACA), the exhibition brings together 44 works from the Michael Jenkins and Javier Romero Collection, curated by MACA.
The exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of Walker's career, spanning from his earliest works to some of his most recent creations. The pieces on display include drawings, prints, sculptures, artist's books, and one of his most recent videos, creating a diverse and in-depth corpus that allows us to appreciate the complexity of his work.
Highlights include 13 pieces from Jenkins and Romero's private collection, on deposit at MACA since 2021, along with another 13 works brought from New York specifically for this exhibition. The collection constitutes one of the most comprehensive collections of the artist's work on display in European institutions and a unique opportunity to delve into Kara Walker's critical, provocative, and poetic universe.
Kara Walker (Stockton, California, 1969) has established herself as one of the most incisive and complex voices in international contemporary art. Her deeply critical work delves into the open wounds of the past—especially those stemming from the legacy of slavery—to explore issues of violence, identity, race, and sexuality.
Through powerful and disturbing visual language, Walker confronts viewers with the racial and gender stereotypes that persist in today's society. Her work revisits historical episodes with an incisive and ironic perspective, revealing the power structures that have shaped both the collective imagination and the official narrative of history.
The exhibition opens with early works by Kara Walker, dating from 1996 and 1997, which already anticipate key elements of her visual language. The first piece on display, I'll Be a Monkey's Uncle (1996), ironically introduces the visitor to the artist's unsettling universe, marked by her distinctive use of black silhouettes, a technique that has become her signature.
These silhouettes, loaded with symbolism and narrative tension, reappear in later works such as Untitled (Monkey Grinder) from 2002, or in the overwhelming yet exquisite Restraint from 2009, where Walker continues to explore with poetic force the links between oppression, desire and historical memory.
With a firm desire to reimagine traditional memorials and reassert her power as a visual storyteller, Kara Walker presents Katastwóf Karavan (maquette) (2017), a miniature sculpture made of cut-out, black-painted steel. The piece depicts a fully functioning calliope—a steam organ—mounted on a railcar, which the artist originally conceived as a public monument for Algiers Point, New Orleans.
This enclave, steeped in history and pain, was used as a detention center for African people before they were sold into slavery. Through this work, Walker redefines the space with a powerfully symbolic sound and visual intervention. "I make art for anyone who has forgotten what it feels like to struggle," the artist recalls, reclaiming collective memory and resistance through art.
"My work has always been a time machine, catapulting me back through decades and centuries to come to some understanding of my 'place' in the contemporary moment," Kara Walker.
