Born in Franklin Georgia in 1935, to a sharecropper’s family, Larry Walker moved with his mother and siblings to Harlem, New York at the age of six. His lifelong career in the arts began with his graduation from New York’s renowned High School of Music & Art. Please enjoy exploring the online collections through the links in Larry’s biography below.
Detail: Larry Walker, Cityscape, 1962, oil on canvas, 18" x 24"
Walker moved to Detroit where he attended Wayne State University and earned a degree in Arts Education in 1958, teaching 5th and 6th grade in the Detroit school system. In 1963 Walker completed an MA in drawing and painting at Wayne State University, and shortly after was offered a position at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California where he was a professor and later chair of the Department of Art.
Larry accepted the position of professor and chair of the art program at Georgia State University in 1983, moving back to Atlanta with his family. Though he retired from Georgia State in 2000, Walker continued to enjoy a prolific career creating and exhibiting his art for the next two decades.
Throughout his long academic career, Larry Walker always continued creating art, taking part in over 200 exhibitions including numerous solo shows. He was also a curator, arts writer, and an active member and board member of numerous local and national arts organizations.
He was chosen as one of three recipients of MOCA GA’s 2007/2008 inaugural Working Artist Project award, and on December 12, 2009, MOCA GA filmed an oral history in his home studio, during which he was asked to narrate his autobiographical history as an artist. Most recently, in 2018, MOCA GA presented a retrospective of Larry Walker’s work in two consecutive parts, over the course of 20+weeks; The Early Years, and The Later Years. This retrospective was accompanied by a full color, scholarly catalogue.