Kara Walker’s (*1969) unique oeuvre casts light on the history of slavery in the United States and its enduring legacy. The New York-based artist works in a variety of media, including drawing, silhouette, prints, sculpture, installation and film. Her influential visual and conceptual provocations offer a powerful, palpable testament to collective phantasms of subjugation, repressed dimensions of human brutality, and psychosexual aspects of racism.

Commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art © Kara Walker. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio
Kara Walker
Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine)
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art – SFMOMA
Through spring 2026
Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine)
A Respite for the Weary Time-Traveler.
Featuring a Rite of Ancient Intelligence Carried out by The Gardeners
Toward the Continued Improvement of the Human Specious
by
Kara E-Walker.
Kara Walker has long been recognized for her incisive examinations of the dynamics of power and the exploitation of race and sexuality. Her work leverages expressions of fantasy and humor to confront troubling histories and dominant narratives, repossessing control in the process. Inspired by a wide range of sources, from antique dolls to Octavia Butler’s novel Parable of the Sower, Walker’s new commission, Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine), considers the memorialization of trauma, the objectives of technology, and the possibilities of transforming the negative energies that plague contemporary society. The presentation marks the first time that SFMOMA has commissioned an artist to create a site-specific installation for the Roberts Family Gallery.
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