Frank Walter

Frank Walter has been established as one of the major creators in the Afro-Caribbean diaspora, being recognized with a retrospective at the Venice Biennale and large-scale exhibitions in London, New York, Edinburgh, Frankfurt and Brussels. Apart from his small paintings, he built wooden sculptures, wrote texts on aesthetics, politics, and the relationship between man and nature, as well as poetry and opera. In art, he responded to issues in European modern art, imagined cosmic space and painted landscapes from different places in the Caribbean. His choice of the small format allowed him to paint on his lap, on a desk or in the palm of his hand, as if taking notes. With an astounding economy of means, Walter synthesized entire landscapes. A simple white line becomes a long cloud on the horizon, a black one becomes a tree trunk framing an ocean view. His landscapes, though painted on tiny surfaces, are surprisingly ample and spatially immersive.

Noteworthy shows includeFrank Walter: To Capture a Soul, The Drawing Center, New York, USA (2024) Frank Walter: Artist, Gardener, Radical, The Garden Museum, London, UK (2023); Frank Walter: Pastorale, David Zwirner, Hong Kong (2023); Frank Walter, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo, Brazil (2023) By Land, Air, Home and Sea: The World of Frank Walter, David Zwirner Gallery, New York, USA (2022); Frank Walter’s Chessboard, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels, Belgium (2022); Music of the Spheres, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland (2021) and The Last Universal Man, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2017).

His work is included in important collections, such as Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; The Bunker, West Palm Beach, U.S.A.; Colección Inelcom, Madrid, Spain; Glenstone Foundation, Potomac, USA; Harry David Art Collection, Athens/Lagos/Nicosia; Hangzhou Contemporary Art Museum, Hangzhou, China; Hiscox Art Collection, London, UK; Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh, UK; The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection, San Francisco, USA; The Loewe Collection, Paris/Madrid, France/Spain; Pinault Collection, Paris, France; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, USA; Museum Fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany; Rennie Collection, Vancouver, Canada; The Robertson Institute of Art, London, UK.