Exhibition Reviews
Visitors respond to The Art of Brian Walker exhibition.
Videography: Velda Goe
“Black people have visions of themselves very different than the media’s vision of us… it’s just wonderful.”— Exhibition visitor
“I was overwhelmed by the size — bigger than life. Extremely talented.”— Exhibition visitor
“Very direct, very simple… extraordinarily powerful.”— Exhibition visitor
“This is a masterpiece… like a lightning bolt struck me — this is my favorite piece.”— Young visitor
Selected Press
“Oakland: Gaye’s influence transcends music.” San Francisco Chronicle. Feature on the multimedia exhibition Trouble Man at the African American Museum and Library at Oakland, including Walker’s portrait Mr. Gaye.
“Mercy, mercy: Exhibit probes Gaye’s pain.” East Bay Times. Review of Trouble Man, with Walker’s Mr. Gaye among the highlighted works.
“Brian Walker’s art is truly larger-than-life.” Oakland Tribune, by Chris Hunter. On the solo exhibition at the Gallery Theater, Skyline College.
“Skyline College celebrates African American Artists of California.” Oakland Tribune, by Chris Hunter. On the Black History Month exhibition at the Gallery Theater, Skyline College.
“Artwork of local artists on display at City Center.” The Montclarion, by Judith Scherr. On Walker’s portraits installed in the office of the Mayor, Oakland, CA.
“Brian Walker at Skyline College.” Exhibition review by critic Bruce Nixon, on the People of Color series at the Gallery Theater, Skyline College.
APEX Museum press release: Emerging Artist of the Year exhibition, Atlanta.
Newsletters & Public Art
City of East Point Department of Planning & Zoning newsletter: public art installations What Eye See and Middle Passage.
Featured artist, Fulton County Arts & Culture, Southwest Arts Center, Atlanta.
Curriculum Vitae
Brian Walker is an American artist working in mixed media, painting, and photography, best known for larger-than-life portraits that engage race, representation, and social commentary. Raised in Oakland, California, he lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia.
Walker earned a BFA in Fashion Illustration from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, where he later served as Director of the Department of Fashion Illustration, teaching fashion illustration. As a fashion illustrator, his clients included the Paris fashion house Lanvin as well as Wilkes Bashford, Macy’s, and Levi Strauss. While working in Paris, he studied privately with master painter Patrick Betaudier, founder of the Atelier Neo Medici. Walker has also worked as a senior artist in the video game industry, with credits at Electronic Arts and THQ, and has taught 3D and digital arts at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta. He was named Emerging Artist of the Year by the APEX Museum in Atlanta and has served as artist in residence and private collection curator in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. His work is held in private and public collections in the United States and abroad.
Exhibitions of his work have been presented at the APEX Museum, Atlanta; Captured Images Gallery, Oakland; the Oakland Public Library; the East Bay Municipal Utility District Gallery, Oakland; and through the City of East Point Public Art Program. Group exhibitions include the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; the African American Museum and Library at Oakland; Mason Murer Fine Art, Atlanta; Hammond House, Atlanta; the Southwest Arts Center, Atlanta; and the San Francisco African American Historical and Cultural Society. A selection of his portraits was installed in the office of the Mayor Oakland, CA.
His work has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, the East Bay Times, the Oakland Tribune — where his art was described as truly “larger-than-life” — and The Montclarion.