Caroline Walker (1982) has long been concerned with questions of gender identity and the role of women in contemporary society. Through her paintings, she challenges stereotypical representations of the female body across a range of socio-economic contexts. Walker is best known for her depictions of women engaged in everyday activities, often in settings that blur the boundaries between public and private. She tells women's stories through the spaces they inhabit– from the undisguised luxury of beauty parlours to the humanistic portraits of refugees and asylum seekers to scenes of anonymous women at work framed by the architecture of London. In her recent artworks, Walker turns her focus to her immediate surroundings, becoming an external observer of familiar spaces. Her subjects include a neighbour working in her garden, a local dry cleaner or a pharmacy sales assistant – figures whose daily routines are connected within a discrete area of the sprawling London metropolis. Her work explores ideas of community and how the anonymous people we encounter become characters in our own stories. In recent years, Walker has held solo and group exhibitions not only throughout the UK, but also in the United States, China, Germany and the Netherlands. Czech audiences were introduced to her work in 2023 through the exhibition New Positions in British Painting at Telegraph Gallery, which featured a new generation of British figurative painters. Her works are held in numerous major public collections, including those in the UK, Australia, China, the United States, and Lebanon. Walker studied painting at the Glasgow School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London. She currently lives and works in her hometown of Dunfermline, Scotland.
