Brooke Walker’s artworks give a voice to the voiceless. Her passion for wildlife conservation and desire to understand the intricate nuances of the human/non-human animal relationship inspires her arts practice. This love of wildlife was created and nurtured during childhood surrounded by animals on a hobby farm in McLaren Vale, South Australia. 

In 2009, Walker graduated from UniSA with a Bachelor in Visual Communication (Illustration Specialisation) and has since continued her artistic studies and skill development through workshops held by Robin Eley of the Art Academy South Australia. In addition, she has sought painting technique mentorships by American painters David Kassan and Shana Levenson. 

Walker hosted ‘PERICLITATUS’, her first solo exhibition of charcoal drawings in 2015. This exhibition showcased the worlds most endangered species through beautifully rendered portraits. Since then her technique has shifted towards oil painting, while still utilising the same attention to detail, giving her works a hyperrealistic quality. She recently exhibited works in oils, charcoal and sculpture for her solo exhibition ‘DUALITY shown at the Fleurieu Arthouse, September 2019.

In 2017 Walker was awarded the ‘Hidden World’ Category prize at the David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year Awards in London with her work ‘Okapia Johnstoni’. Since then she has also won the ‘Hanger’s Prize’ with ‘Great Barrier Reef 1’ in the 2017 Solar Art Prize, the overall winner for the ‘2018 RSASA Characters of the Fleurieu’ art prize with her artwork ‘Soul’ and the ‘People’s Responsibility’ category prize with the work ‘Life or Death’ in the 2018 Solar Art Prize. She was a finalist in the Lethbridge 10000 during 2018 and 2019 and the Alice Springs Art Prize in 2018. 

Not content with being a traditional wildlife artist, Walkers’ new works blur the lines between the real and surreal. She takes inspiration from historical research and symbolism, current environmental issues such as climate change and urban sprawl and her interest in animal social sciences. Her artworks are intertwined with deep empathy and an emotion that is hard to conceive in the written word. Above all, it is her goal to create beautiful, thought provoking imagery to encourage empathy and discussion in order to entice change in the human attitudes towards non-human animals. 

In early 2020 Walker was mentored by acclaimed Melbourne street artist Rone after being awarded grant funding through the Guildhouse Catapult program. Brooke has a vision to place often overlooked non-human animals back into the cities through engaging street art, encouraging the viewer to notice and interact with them day to day. Street art has historically been a tool for change, a place to advocate and express personal, social and political opinions.

Brooke Walker has occupied a studio space at the Fleurieu Arthouse in McLaren Vale for the past 3 years with her arts business Brooke Walker Fine Art being founded 4 years ago.

As part of her ongoing practice Brooke Walker donates a percentage of artwork sales directly to reputable wildlife conservation charities.

* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 15^th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.