Listen to me carefully, you bunch of snobs, it is high time to talk about Caroline Walker, this artist who does much more than simply paint women at work. She opens our eyes to an entire invisible part of our society, with a surgical precision that would make Michel Foucault pale.
Do you think you know contemporary painting? Let me tell you the story of this Scottish woman born in 1982, who transforms the voyeuristic act into a sociological manifesto. Walker, armed with her brushes and piercing gaze, infiltrates the interstices of our daily life to capture those moments we prefer to ignore: a chambermaid changing sheets in a luxury hotel for a few euros an hour, a manicurist tirelessly polishing the nails of those who can afford this luxury, a mother methodically tidying up her kitchen at 11 p.m.
But beware, do not be mistaken. If Walker makes us think of Foucault’s “Panopticon” concept, it is not by chance. Her monumental paintings place us in the uncomfortable position of the watcher, observing these women through windows, half-opened doors, stairs. We become accomplices of this constant social surveillance, of this invisible control that governs our modern lives. The difference? Walker turns the concept on itself. It is no longer the institution watching, but the artist exposing society’s institutional surveillance of female labor.
Let’s take a moment to analyze her technique. Her oils on canvas are not mere transcribed photographs. No, Walker plays with light like Claude Monet with his water lilies, but instead of bucolic gardens, she offers us scenes of striking realism bathed in artificial glows of neon lights, desk lamps, smartphones. There is something deeply political in the way Walker treats light. This light is not there to embellish; it is there to reveal. In her interior scenes, Walker often uses a warm, almost comforting palette, but one that never fully dispels the shadows. These shadowed areas are no accident: they represent everything we refuse to see, everything we prefer to keep in darkness.
Sociologist Dorothy Smith would speak here of “standpoint theory,” the theory of perspective that states that our social position influences our perception of the world. Walker illustrates this masterfully. As a woman painting women, she deconstructs the traditional “male gaze” to offer us a radically different perspective. It is no longer the male gaze objectifying; it is the female gaze documenting, understanding, sharing.
In her series on female refugees in London, Walker takes the exercise even further. She doesn’t just show these women in their daily lives; she exposes the underlying violence of their situation through subtle details: an unpacked travel bag, bare walls, transitional spaces. Simone de Beauvoir resonates here, with her concept of “situation,” how social and material environments condition our existence. These women are not simply “in” these spaces; they are defined by them, constrained by them.
Her paintings on nail salons are particularly revealing. In “Pampered Pedis” (2016), Walker captures the absurdity of our consumer society. On one side, women who pay to have their feet cared for; on the other, women who spend their days kneeling for minimum wage. The composition is brilliant: the clients are always slightly blurred, almost erased, while the workers are rendered with an almost painful precision. It’s a sharp commentary on class division, but also on how we choose what we want to see and what we prefer to ignore.
The series “Janet,” dedicated to her mother, is perhaps her most intimate yet most universal work. By documenting her mother’s daily tasks in their family home in Dunfermline, Walker elevates domestic work to the rank of art. Each brushstroke is a recognition of those gestures repeated millions of times: folding laundry, watering plants, preparing dinner. It is a tribute to all those hours of invisible, unpaid work that keep our society afloat.
Make no mistake: while her paintings are beautiful, they are not there to comfort us. Walker forces us to look at what we prefer to ignore. She places us in the uncomfortable position of the voyeur, but a voyeur aware of her position, forced to reflect on her own complicity in these systems of exploitation. The size of her canvases is no accident either. By creating works often larger than life, Walker compels us to face these realities physically. We cannot simply look away: these women, their lives, their work literally occupy the space. It is a physical manifestation of what philosopher Nancy Fraser calls “the justice of recognition,” the idea that social justice also involves visibility and recognition.
Walker’s latest works, especially those created during the pandemic, take on an even more poignant dimension. In her representations of nurses and caregivers, the same attention to detail is found, but with a new urgency. Masks, gowns, repeated caregiving gestures tirelessly become symbols of a daily resilience we have taken for granted for too long. The artist does not merely document; she transforms. Each painting is a window, but also a mirror. We look at these women, but we are also forced to look at ourselves, to question our own position in this complex social dynamic. This is where the true strength of her work lies: in her ability to transform a voyeuristic act into an exercise of social consciousness.
Walker achieves this rare feat: creating art that is both politically engaged and aesthetically sophisticated. Her paintings are sociological documents, feminist manifestos, but above all, works of art that move us through their formal beauty and technical mastery. Through her canvases, Walker reminds us that art is not only there to decorate our walls or fill our museums. It is there to force us to see, to think, to question our assumptions. In a world bombarded with images, she teaches us to truly look, to see beyond appearances, to understand the complexity of lives unfolding around us. Her work is a constant reminder that behind every lit window, every ajar door, there are lives unfolding, stories that deserve to be told, realities that deserve to be seen. And maybe that is, ultimately, the true role of the artist: to teach us to see what we look at without seeing every day.
In her series “Birth Reflections,” exhibited at the Fitzrovia Chapel in 2022, Walker explores a new territory: motherhood. After giving birth to her daughter, she undertook a residency at the maternity wing of University College Hospital in London. The result is a series of works capturing the intimate and often difficult moments of childbirth and the first days of life. These paintings are particularly revealing of her ability to transform clinical spaces into deeply human scenes. The sterile hospital corridors become theaters of raw emotions, where life and vulnerability coexist. Walker captures these moments with a tenderness that is never sentimental, an honesty that is never brutal.
The “Lisa” series, which follows her sister-in-law during pregnancy and the early months of motherhood, pushes this exploration even further. These paintings show us the rarely depicted aspects of motherhood: physical exhaustion, endless nights, transforming bodies, domestic spaces invaded by childcare accessories. It is an unvarnished look at this intense period of transition, where identity is rebuilt around a new role.
What strikes in these recent works is the way Walker continues to explore themes dear to her: the invisible work of women, gendered spaces, social surveillance, while applying them to more personal experiences. She shows us that even the most intimate moments of our lives are shaped by broader social structures.
Walker’s palette has also broadened over the years. While her early works often favored cold and clinical tones, her recent work embraces a more varied range of chromatic emotions. The tender pinks of hospital rooms sit alongside the deep blues of nighttime scenes, creating a visual symphony that reflects the emotional complexity of her subjects.
Her technique itself has refined, becoming more assured while remaining faithful to her distinctive style. The brushstrokes are both precise and expressive, creating a fascinating tension between documentary and artistic interpretation. This technical mastery allows her to skillfully navigate between the realism necessary to anchor her scenes in everyday life and the expressionism that gives them their emotional power.
The growing success of Walker in the art market, with works reaching record prices at auctions, raises interesting questions about how contemporary art can address social issues while navigating the commercial world of galleries and collectors. Her work proves that it is possible to maintain artistic integrity and social engagement while finding a place in the art market.
But what remains constant in her work is this unique ability to make us see the invisible. Whether it is a cleaning lady in a luxury hotel, an exhausted mother feeding a bottle at 3 a.m., or a refugee in her temporary accommodation, Walker forces us to look at these lives unfolding at the margins of our vision.
Her art reminds us that true revolution does not always lie in grand gestures or striking declarations, but in the ability to see everyday life differently, to recognize the dignity and importance of those seemingly mundane moments that make up the fabric of our lives.
Caroline Walker’s work is much more than simple documentation of women’s work or social critique. It is an invitation to reconsider our way of seeing, valuing, and understanding the world around us. In a world that often favors the spectacular and extraordinary, the artist reminds us that true beauty, true meaning, is often found in those daily moments we too often take for granted.
Her work resonates particularly today, as we are finally beginning to recognize the importance of the invisible work that keeps our society running. She shows us that art can be both a mirror reflecting our social reality and a tool to transform it. By forcing us to see what we often prefer to ignore, she invites us to become more attentive and aware observers of our world, and perhaps, through this awareness, to help change it.
