Ella Walker

Ella Walker’s monumental and yet evanescent canvases revisit the European medieval and Renaissance frescoes tradition, introducing the presence of women who defiantly challenge conventional representations of feminine in the arts and gently refuse to conform to the viewers’ expectations. There is something slightly disturbing and uncanny in the posture, appearances, and actions of the women that animate Walker’s images. Her paintings instantly evoke the crisp and almost surreal luminosity of Italian master Piero della Francesca, and the clarity of the revolutionary proto-Renaissance painter Giotto.

Within the intersection of medieval and contemporary spaces, Walker moves freely, interchanging histories with invented scenes that are both referential and dream-like. By creating imagery that merges art history iconography from the Trecento and Renaissance periods, theatrical sets and stock characters from Commedia dell’Arte, contemporary ballet, and costume design inspired by 1960s cinema and fashion magazines, Walker translates ritual into innovation, refitting old narratives into contemporary plots of unfolding tragedy, comedy, and love.