LONDON.- Marlborough presents the work of Caroline Walker, winner of The Valerie Beston Artists’ Trust Prize 2009.

The charity was established in 2006 to support artists at the beginning of their careers. Miss Beston, a former Director of the gallery, provided help to many artists during the course of her work. The charity is collaborating with the Royal College of Art to award an annual prize to a postgraduate student on graduating. This comprises a studio for a year at SPACE, a financial contribution towards materials, tutorial support generously provided by the RCA, and an exhibition at the end of the year. Catherine Lampert and Pilar Ordovas have kindly selected the winner of the prize.

Caroline Walker describes her work as “Located between reality and fiction, the work plays with temporalities and constructed narrative developed through collaboration with life models at different locations or ‘sets’, exploring the relationship of women to the domestic.”

There is an inherent tension in the paintings between the model and their surroundings. The female figure, nude or semi-clad, may be present, partially obscured or absent altogether, with lighting used to focus attention on areas of the body and objects. There is a sense of artifice in the actions and dress of the figure that combined with the domestic paraphernalia and objects give an implied narrative to the works prompting us to wonder what may have happened or be about to happen. The perfomative task the model is involved in is arrived at or staged through the painting process. The solitary nature of the female figure addresses anxieties about isolation which is strongly conveyed in the work.

Caroline Walker was born in Dunfermline in 1982 and now lives and works in London. She studied at Glasgow School of Art 2000-2004 and the Royal College of Art 2007-2009 and is also the recipient of the 2009 Neville Burston Award, Royal College of Art; the 2009 Tom Bendhem Drawing Prize, Royal College of Art and the 2007 Dewar Arts Award. She has participated in numerous group shows in the United Kingdom and abroad.