Wellington artist Jake Walker (b. Wadestown 1971) calls his work 'Folk Modernism.' Rather than slick and sophisticated, his paintings are determinedly handmade, often freely incorporating unexpected materials and media.

Untitled and Black Painting were paired in Walker’s solo exhibition at City Gallery, The Town Belt in 2014. In this exhibition, alongside a shelf of ceramic objects named after Wellington architect Ian Athfield, the artist presented paintings in which he had variously layered-up paint and built his compositions in pictorial space.

Growing up in the houses of his father, Wellington architect Roger Walker, Jake draws on a postmodern Wellington architectural tradition with its still very recognisable forms and aesthetics. And yet, his work is more radically concerned with materiality itself and the ‘wily’ nature of paint. But at the same time, the artist draws on earlier traditions: the Modernist period of the early 20th century when international artists assembled, combined and gave relief to different materials.

After being based in Melbourne for five years, and in Sydney before that, Walker returned to New Zealand and with The Town Belt made the personal and local associations that have been a part of his practice more apparent.