Biography
Lisa Walker

“I research the differences between an acceptable notion of beauty or stereo-type, and something else – the search for an aesthetic that we hardly ever see, but nevertheless perhaps recognise. I don't want to make pieces that are easily steered through our established channels, I want people to be forced to work on new syllogisms, analogies and positions. I am continually pushing towards the extreme, and see this is a method which enables an expansion in thinking and ways of working.
I use a large range of materials and techniques.
I make reactionary work, consciously active with influences from all walks of culture and life. The pieces are often laced with references to contemporary jewellery of the last fifty years, questioning and researching what jewellery means, what it can be.
I position my work around the history, future, and boundaries of jewellery. 

I make pieces for the future. 

I don’t always know what I’m doing, I hope it stays like that.  

Everything is food for art”.

Lisa Walker was born and grew up in Wellington, New Zealand.  Her father was a book publisher, her mother a trade unionist.   

 

Walker studied Craft and Design at Otago Polytechnic Art School in Dunedin, New Zealand in the late 80’s.   Returning from a 2 year travel throughout Australia, the UK, and Asia she then founded Workshop 6 with other Auckland jewellers.  From 1995-2001 she studied with Professor Otto Künzli at the Akadamie der Bildenden Künste in Munich, Germany.  She returned to New Zealand in 2009 with her partner Karl Fritsch and their two children.

 

She has exhibited widely in galleries and museums internationally and has work in many international collections.  She has received numerous awards including the Francoise van den Bosch Award in 2009 and the Arts Laureate Award of the New Zealand Arts Foundation in 2015.  In 2022 she received the New Zealand Order of Merit ONZM and in 2023 the Bayerische Staatspreis/Bavarian State Prize.  She has taught workshops in art schools internationally and worked collaboratively with other artists including Chicks On Speed and Åbäke.

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