Walker received her BFA from the Atlanta College of Art in 1991 and her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1994. Her survey show, Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love, premiered at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 2007 and travelled to New York, Paris, Los Angeles, and Houston. She was the U.S. representative to the Sao Paolo Biennial in 2002 and participated in the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007. She is the recipient of many awards including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Achievement Award in 1997, the Deutsche Bank Prize in 2000, and the United States Artists Fellowship in 2008. Her work in the collection of the Guggenheim Museum; the Museum of Modern Art, New York City; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Tate Gallery; the Centro Nazionale per le Arti Contemporanee, Rome; and Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt. She lives and works in New York City.
New York City, NY; NYC