Emeritus Professor Larry Walker Receives 2016 Nexus Award from Atlanta Contemporary Art Center

The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center recently announced Georgia State Emeritus Professor Larry Walker as its 2016 Nexus Award Recipient. The Nexus Award is a public acknowledgment of individuals, groups, or organizations that have made significant contributions to the contemporary arts landscape and celebrates local leaders who are instrumental in making Atlanta an exceptionally vibrant arts community.

Georgia State’s Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design Gallery is showing Selected Works by Larry Walker through Nov. 11. The gallery is located at 10 Peachtree Center Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30303.

Former Director of Art and Design at Georgia State, Walker began his long career as an educator at the University of the Pacific in Stsickton, California where he was a professor and later chair of the Department of Art. In 1983 he accepted a position in Atlanta as a professor and director of the art program at Georgia State. He retired from the university in 2000.

Walker’s career as an artist spans over 50 years-a highlight to date is the solo exhibition at Sikkema Jenkins & Co (New York) curated by his daughter and gallery artist, Kara Walke,”We aspire to introduce our increasing and diversified audiences to individuals like Mr. Walker who have and will continue to shape the landscape of contemporary art here in Atlanta,” says Executive Director Veronica Kessenich. “Larry Walker’s impact on the lives and careers of artists is significant. It is a privilege to honor him as the 2016 Nexus Award recipient.”

The Welch School presentation is a solo exhibition of paintings and works on paper selected by the artist and gallery director Cynthia Farnell. The pieces in Selected Works represent Walker’s ongoing investment in drawing, painting, collage and the human form, with shadow-like forms appearing as enigmatic ·and recurring motifs. Walker says of his recent work:”Some of the imagery I have been using for a number o( years has evolved and has somewhat moved into the realm o( ‘hidden images.’ The images I refer to as Wall Spirits or Spirit Voices extend from a kind of metamorphosis or melding of faces, heads, birds, animals, fish, unknown creatures and/or mergers between human forms and plants or animals. In recent paintings the use of such images appear to be hidden in the spatial context of the composition … embedded in a kind of Bosch-like cacophony of shapes and textured areas.”

Emereties Fall 2016