KARA WALKER

American painter.

Kara Walker's latest show, "The Ecstasy of St. Kara," highlights connections between religion, slavery, martyrdom, and the use of lethal force by police, which has inspired protests nationwide.

In the show's catalog, Walker says that controversial recent killings of black men by police represent a backlash, caused by deep-seated racial anxieties, against the election of Barack Obama as the nation's first black president.

"I fear that Michael Brown and Tamir Rice and all the rest were killed as proxies for The Black President," Walker writes in her essay, entitled "Assassination by Proxy."

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Burning African Village Play Set with Big House and Lynching, 2006. Painted laser cut steel, 22 parts, dimensions variable © Kara Walker. Image courtesy of Sikkema Jenkin & Co., New York.

Burning African Village Play Set with Big House and Lynching, 2006

Painted laser cut steel

22 parts, dimensions variable

Images courtesy of Sikkema Jenkin & Co.,

New York.

"Detail," Burning African Village Play Set with Big House and Lynching, 2006. Painted laser cut steel, 22 parts, dimensions variable © Kara Walker. Images courtesy of Sikkema Jenkin & Co., New York

"Detail," Burning African Village Play Set with Big House and Lynching, 2006. Painted laser cut steel, 22 parts, dimensions variable © Kara Walker. Images courtesy of Sikkema Jenkin & Co., New York

"Detail," Burning African Village Play Set with Big House and Lynching, 2006. Painted laser cut steel, 22 parts, dimensions variable © Kara Walker. Images courtesy of Sikkema Jenkin & Co., New York

"Detail," Burning African Village Play Set with Big House and Lynching, 2006. Painted laser cut steel, 22 parts, dimensions variable © Kara Walker. Images courtesy of Sikkema Jenkin & Co., New York

"Detail," Burning African Village Play Set with Big House and Lynching, 2006. Painted laser cut steel, 22 parts, dimensions variable © Kara Walker. Images courtesy of Sikkema Jenkin & Co., New York

"Detail," Burning African Village Play Set with Big House and Lynching, 2006. Painted laser cut steel, 22 parts, dimensions variable © Kara Walker. Images courtesy of Sikkema Jenkin & Co., New York

"Detail," Burning African Village Play Set with Big House and Lynching, 2006. Painted laser cut steel, 22 parts, dimensions variable © Kara Walker. Images courtesy of Sikkema Jenkin & Co., New York

"Detail," Burning African Village Play Set with Big House and Lynching, 2006. Painted laser cut steel, 22 parts, dimensions variable © Kara Walker. Images courtesy of Sikkema Jenkin & Co., New York

"Detail," Burning African Village Play Set with Big House and Lynching, 2006. Painted laser cut steel, 22 parts, dimensions variable © Kara Walker. Images courtesy of Sikkema Jenkin & Co., New York

"Detail," Burning African Village Play Set with Big House and Lynching, 2006. Painted laser cut steel, 22 parts, dimensions variable © Kara Walker. Images courtesy of Sikkema Jenkin & Co., New York

"Detail," Burning African Village Play Set with Big House and Lynching, 2006. Painted laser cut steel, 22 parts, dimensions variable © Kara Walker. Images courtesy of Sikkema Jenkin & Co., New York

"Detail," Burning African Village Play Set with Big House and Lynching, 2006. Painted laser cut steel, 22 parts, dimensions variable © Kara Walker. Images courtesy of Sikkema Jenkin & Co., New York

"Detail," Burning African Village Play Set with Big House and Lynching, 2006. Painted laser cut steel, 22 parts, dimensions variable © Kara Walker. Images courtesy of Sikkema Jenkin & Co., New York

"Detail," Burning African Village Play Set with Big House and Lynching, 2006. Painted laser cut steel, 22 parts, dimensions variable © Kara Walker. Images courtesy of Sikkema Jenkin & Co., New York

"Detail," Burning African Village Play Set with Big House and Lynching, 2006. Painted laser cut steel, 22 parts, dimensions variable © Kara Walker. Images courtesy of Sikkema Jenkin & Co., New York