Barbara Walker: Being Here at Arnolfini

The first major survey exhibition by British artist Barbara Walker, described as one of the most important British artists working today, Being Here charts the artist’s compelling figurative practice, from the 1990s to today. 

Following a hugely sucessful run at The Whitworth, Being Here presents almost 60 extraordinary artworks, including rarely seen early paintings of Walker’s family, friends and community in her home city of Birmingham, along with her Turner Prize nominated monumental drawing series Burden of Proof (2022-23), which illustrates the impact on the lives of those affected by the Windrush scandal.

For over twenty-five years, Walker has been making intensely observed and empathetic figurative work that creates space for Black presence, power and belonging.  Ranging from delicate graphite drawings on archival documents to embossed reliefs spotlighting marginalised Black figures in old Master paintings, Walker tackles wide-ranging themes such as the policing and surveillance of Black life, twentieth-century war histories and immigration to challenge conventions of representation and the histories they are rooted in.