BELLEVUE, WA.- Kara Walker is arguably one of the most prominent and controversial artists working in America today. Challenging conventional (and comfortable) understandings of American history, Walker's works are intentionally confrontational and offer unflinching representations of racial and gender stereotypes from America's not-so-distant past.

Emancipating the Past: Kara Walker’s Tales of Slavery and Power, presents three of Walker’s narrative portfolio series—The Emancipation Approximation (1999–2000), Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War: Annotated (2005), and An Unpeopled Land in Uncharted Waters (2010)—accompanied by single works that highlight her use of Antebellum and Reconstruction-era imagery and themes. Walker’s narratives unfold throughout these elaborate tableaux that tackle issues of race, slavery, sexuality, identity, and power. The artist’s modern use of antiquated media such as cut-paper silhouettes, 8mm film, and 19th-century printmaking, further reveals the complexities and ambiguities of historical and present day racial representation while providing a subtext for the provocative narratives played out in her work.

The 6o works on view include several of the artist’s large-scale print series, cut-steel sculptures, a mural, and a video installation, displaying the range of approaches she has taken to exploring the legacy of slavery and its impact on contemporary American identity. The works in the exhibition are accompanied by interactive educational materials that contextualize black memorabilia and racist stereotyping, as well as the original Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War, first published by Ed. Alfred H. Guernsey and Henry M. Alden in 1866.

Kara Walker received her BFA from the Atlanta College of Art and an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design. Her work is held in many renowned public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Tate Collection, London. A 1997 recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, Walker lives in New York, where she is on the faculty of the MFA program at Columbia University.