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Indepth Arts News:
"Drawn from My Soul: The Art of J. Michael Walker"
2000-08-11 until 2000-10-01
Arkansas Arts Center, Decorative Arts Museum
Little Rock, AK,
USA United States of America
This exhibition features more than a dozen of Walker's large-scale religion inspired
works, most of which are drawn with colored pencils.
Born and raised in Little Rock, Walker has lived in Los Angeles and Mexico for the past
25 years. Walker, a self-taught artist, explores the spirituality and diverse aspects of
Latin American and Mexican cultures. Much of Walker's recent work depicts the Virgin of
Guadalupe, Mexico's most sacred icon. He often portrays the Virgin Mary as a strong,
living mother engaged in the daily tasks of rural life.
The idea is to modernize the highly respected images and themes of the Virgin Mary,
says Walker. This series of works grew out of my immersion into Mexican rural,
lower-class culture where there is a sense of ease in the way people approach the holy
powers. In 1974, Walker moved to Chihuahua, Mexico where he said that he married
into the culture. I underwent a transformation that was both spiritual and cultural and
began producing artwork that was reflective of my new reality.
Walker has participated in over 75 group exhibitions in galleries and museums across
the United States and in Mexico; and has enjoyed several solo exhibitions of his work,
including, most notably: the Museo Nacional de Culturas Populares, in Mexico City in
1997; and Harvard University's David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, in
1998. Selected pieces from this exhibition will be for sale.
IMAGE:
Nuestra Senora de Rosas, Lirios y Luz
(Our Lady of Roses, Lilies and Light), 1998
(color pencil on paper)
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