IVAM presents the most comprehensive European survey of Kara Walker’s career to date, drawn from the Michael Jenkins and Javier Romero Collection at MACA
Kara Walker, The Katastwóf Karavan (maquette), 2017. MACA. Michael Jenkins & Javier Romero Collection.
The Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM) presents ‘Kara Walker. Burning Village’, an exhibition that offers a comprehensive overview of the American artist’s four-decade career. Curated by Rosa Castells, the exhibition is made possible through collaboration with the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Alicante (MACA). It highlights the significance of the Michael Jenkins and Javier Romero Collection, one of the most extensive holdings of Walker’s work in Europe. On view at IVAM Centre Julio González, the presentation brings together 44 works, including drawings, prints, sculptures, artist books, and one of Walker’s most recent video installations.
Kara Walker and the language of shadow
Born in Stockton, California, in 1969, Kara Walker has established herself as one of the most significant voices in contemporary art. Her practice is renowned for its critical examination of themes of race, gender, identity, violence, and sexuality. Walker’s works confront the historical and psychological legacies of slavery while probing how these histories continue to shape contemporary cultural narratives.
She is most widely recognised for her cut-paper silhouettes. These works, formally rooted in the traditions of Victorian shadow portraits, shadow theatre, and magic lantern shows, use archetypal figures and satirical staging to unravel myths of national identity. At once delicate and haunting, these silhouettes stage scenes filled with both chaotic energy and biting irony. By deploying such a historically domestic and decorative medium, Walker subverts expectations, transforming silhouette portraiture into a vehicle for exposing the brutality and contradictions of historical memory.
Burning Village
The title ‘Burning Village’ encapsulates the atmosphere of rupture, violence, and reckoning that defines Walker’s practice. Her imagery moves between historical realism and allegorical invention, staging encounters in which past and present overlap. The exhibition showcases her ability to explore the intersection between myth and lived reality, offering audiences both a critical perspective on history and a visceral aesthetic experience.
As Walker has observed, “I am always reflecting on current events and the overlap between the historical and the mythical.” This ongoing reflection is central to her work, in which histories are never fixed or distant but recur in altered forms, shaping the present in ways that demand confrontation.
The exhibition spans 40 years of Walker’s artistic production, bringing together works that explore race, power, desire, and systems of oppression and subjugation. Themes of slavery, sexuality, and social injustice recur across her oeuvre, highlighting the persistence of unresolved trauma in American cultural and political life.
The MACA Collection
The Michael Jenkins and Javier Romero Collection, on which the exhibition is based, was significantly enriched in 2021 with the donation of 31 works, later expanded by an additional 13 works on loan from New York in 2024. Together, these 44 pieces represent one of the most critical European holdings of Walker’s practice and are central to MACA’s mission to preserve and disseminate contemporary art.
By presenting this collection in Valencià, IVAM underscores the importance of institutional collaboration in broadening access to significant international artists. It also highlights the role of European museums in contextualising and critically engaging with narratives of race, identity, and power that extend beyond national borders.
Media and methods
Walker’s work is characterised by her use of diverse media, ranging from drawing and printmaking to sculpture, video, and installation. This variety allows her to address complex historical and social questions through multiple entry points, ensuring that her work cannot be confined to a single interpretive lens.
Her prints and drawings combine formal precision with an unflinching treatment of their subject matter. Sculptures and installations expand these concerns into physical space, inviting viewers into unsettling encounters with figures and scenes that challenge historical silences. More recent video works extend her engagement with narrative, performance, and allegory into time-based media, demonstrating her ability to adapt traditional forms to contemporary contexts.
Each medium offers a distinct approach to interrogating the representation of race and gender, and together they form a body of work that is both coherent and wide-ranging.
Critical significance
Walker’s work has had a lasting impact on contemporary art by challenging established narratives and creating space for new conversations about history and representation. By revisiting the imagery of slavery, violence, and subjugation, she compels audiences to confront how these histories remain embedded in social and cultural structures. Her art has consistently raised questions about visibility, power, and complicity, urging viewers to reflect on the persistence of systemic inequities.
The emotional intensity and intellectual depth of her work make it a reference point not only within the field of contemporary art but also within broader cultural and academic debates. In bringing this comprehensive survey to Valencià, IVAM contributes to expanding Walker’s reception and situating her practice within European and global discourses.
‘Kara Walker: Burning Village’ is on view at IVAM Centre, Julio González from September 25, 2025, to February 22, 2026. For more information, visit ivam.es.
