Jake Walker
View stockroom & exhibitions“Jake’s work has always shown an uncanny use of found imagery imposed with a painterly intervention that reveals something new, fresh and just right” Mark Hislop
Jake Walker’s paintings are a response to the rise in slick, highly resolved contemporary art which de-emphasises the hand made and the mark of the artist. Walker calls it “Folk Modernism” and he describes what he means to Carrie Miller: The conceptual set will argue that making art based on practice and aesthetic judgment can only result in decoration. Yet standing in front of a Diena Georgetti painting you are confronted with a cosmic power beyond the early 20th century abstract content. It’s as if somewhere in the process of applying acrylic paint to board the art gods got involved and turned the work into a pointer to another world. Aesthetically, society is in a crumby place. Most new buildings, cars, clothes, songs and websites are badly designed and constructed. It’s no wonder artists are looking back more and more, slowing down and reassessing things. Let’s move forward; let’s look back.
Born in New Zealand in 1971, Jake Walker lives and works in Melbourne. Solo exhibitions of Walker’s work have been held in New Zealand and Australia. Walker has been included in numerous group exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart and New Zealand. His work was highly commended in the RBS Emerging Artist Award 2010 and Jake Walker won the inaugural Arkley Award at NOTFAIR, Melbourne.