For the first time in Argentina, we present an exhibition dedicated to the artist Kara Walker, one of the most powerful voices to emerge at the end of the 20th century. Born in California in 1969, she currently lives and works in New York. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, has received numerous awards and fellowships, and teaches at various universities across the United States. Her work is part of the collections of major international museums, where it engages today with the official narratives of art.

Her practice burst onto the scene in the mid-1990s, renewing visual languages and raising urgent questions about history and contemporary events. The exhibition reflects this gesture, offering a journey that spans almost three decades. Rather than presenting an exhaustive chronological account of Kara Walker’s career, this selection seeks to construct a panorama that highlights some of the most significant moments in her production—both in terms of the artistic resources she employs and the critical issues she addresses.

Drawing occupies a central place in her work. As noted by acclaimed critic Jerry Saltz, “Walker accompanies herself with drawing in an expansive and politically powerful format, linking history and the present in explicit and provocative images.” The revival of the cut-paper silhouette runs through her monumental murals, her videos, her screenprints—which weave fragmented stories—and the sketches of her large-scale public artworks.

The exhibition begins with an early series of drawings (1994) in which the first images emerge around African American culture, slavery, the role of Black women, and the struggle for civil rights—foundational themes in the history of the United States that nonetheless acquire a universal resonance, addressing collective memory around violence, exclusion, and forms of power. This universality also allows for echoes with the realities of Latin America, marked by colonial, racial, and social processes that continue to shape the region’s past and present.

Video, with silhouettes in motion like a shadow theater, creates worlds rooted in these themes, while mural, screenprint, and engraving complete a repertoire of visual languages as broad as it is incisive.

The final gallery features Kara Walker’s reflection on the value of monuments, the heroes who inhabit them, and the figures that are venerated, condensed in three large-scale works. Through these pieces, Walker questions how monuments construct an official memory that glorifies some while silencing others. Her intervention seeks not to perpetuate idolatry but to dismantle these narratives and create space for excluded voices.

The result is an exceptional exhibition that invites reflection on migration, cultural encounters, forms of power, and the persistence of symbols, opening the way to a sharp and urgent view of the present.