Jake Walker was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1971, graduating from Whitirea Art School, Wellington in 1989 and the Otago School of Fine Art, Dunedin in 1991. He currently lives and works in Hobart, Tasmania.

Walker’s painterly vocabulary extends from the monochromatic to lively, tonally varied compositions, always in pursuit of harmony with the ceramic frames he builds around the canvas. There is a tension between these two mediums. The frames can only be worked on until the clay dries, at which point they provide a relatively rigid framework for the pigment being pushed and pulled within their borders. The artist helps the paintings to find their own final form, a process which may begin with unexpected accumulations or underpainting, before an exercise in obliteration sometimes takes over in the search for a resolution.

The modernist architectural structures of New Zealanders Ian Athfield and Neville Porteous are an enduring influence in Walker’s practice. Never intended to be completed, these buildings were subject to the endless additions and imaginings of their creators. This reluctance to draw a line under a project finds parallels in Walker’s intensively studio-focussed practice. Walker’s paintings disrupt the pristine white space of the gallery with a reminder of the gritty, complicated world of the studio. 

Walker’s paintings propose an antidote to contemporary image saturation, encouraging a slow, forensic examination of the works’ layers. While in the digital world there is always the ‘undo’ option, there is, as Walker notes, “a certain kind of destruction in painting, which involves a degree of bravery.” In his works, the viewer is drawn to investigate the vestiges of something which may never be completely revealed.

Walker has exhibited regularly since the late 2000s, including the solo exhibitions The Town Belt, City Gallery, Wellington, NZ (2014) and Geyserland, Dutton, New York, USA (2016). Walker’s work is regularly included in group exhibitions including Dirty Ceramics, Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, NZ (2019); Melbourne Now, NGV, Melbourne (2013) The Lie of The Land, Australian Embassy Gallery, Washington DC, USA (2012) and has been exhibited at numerous art fairs in Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific. Awards include Bayside Art Prize (finalist, 2022); Waverley Art Prize (finalist, 2022); Maddocks Award (finalist, 2011); Arkley Award (winner, 2010); RBS Emerging Artists Prize (highly commended, 2010); BSG Small Works Prize (winner, 2009); & Blake Prize (finalist, 2009). From 2010-12 Walker held a Gertrude Contemporary Studio Artist residency. 

Walker’s works are held in public, private and corporate collections including Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery, Toi o Tamaki, Auckland; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington; Wellington City Council; Wallace Art Trust, Auckland; Bowman Collection, Brisbane; Joyce Nissan Collection; & Art Bank Australia. Walker is represented by Gallery 9, Sydney; STATION, Melbourne; Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington; Ivan Anthony, Auckland; and Dutton, New York.