ARTIST # 10: CAROLINE WALKER
In April this year, as a result of the Covid- 19 pandemic, the 2020 edition of the Edinburgh Art Festival had to be cancelled. However, as Edinburgh and its vibrant visual art scene begin to emerge from lockdown we are delighted to present this weekly showcase, produced alongside Edinburgh Art Festival, featuring work by artists with digital and/ or physical exhibitions at the city’s galleries.
Born in Dunfermline in 1982, Caroline Walker has become known for her striking canvases of women, specifically of women at work. These fragmented narratives, glimpses of women going about their lives in both public and private environments, begin as photographic snaps ( often taken covertly) which are later worked up into luminous oil paintings. They are sometimes playful, but can also be challenging, documenting the myriad social, cultural, economic, racial and political factors that affect women’s lives today. In her first exhibition at Edinburgh’s Ingleby Gallery, which opens next month, Walker turns her attention close to home, presenting a series of paintings where the focus is the artist’s mother, Janet, as she goes about her daily tasks; cooking, cleaning, tidying and tending the garden of the Fife home where the artist spent her childhood. Janet, by Caroline Walker runs from 3 October until 18 December. The Ingleby Gallery is open by appointment from Wednesday to Saturday, between 11am and 5pm. A fully illustrated book, with an essay by the critic Hettie Judah and an interview with the artist, is available to mark the exhibition.