Lisa Walker

Lisa Walker was born in 1967 and grew up in Wellington, New Zealand. Her father was a book publisher, her mother a trade unionist.

Walker studied craft and design at Otago Polytechnic Art School, in Dunedin, New Zealand, in the late 80s. After returning from two years of travel throughout Australia, the UK, and Asia, she then founded Workshop 6 with other Auckland jewelers. From 1995–2001 she studied with Professor Otto Künzli at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich, Germany. She returned to New Zealand in 2009 with her partner, Karl Fritsch, and their two children.

Walker has exhibited widely in galleries and museums internationally and has work in many international collections. She has received numerous awards, including the Françoise van den Bosch Award, in 2009, and the Arts Laureate Award of the New Zealand Arts Foundation, in 2015. In 2022 she received the New Zealand Order of Merit ONZM, and in 2023 the Bayerische Staatspreis/Bavarian State Prize. Walker has taught workshops and given lectures in art schools internationally and worked collaboratively with other artists, including Chicks On Speed, Åbäke, Francis Upritchard, Martino Gamper, and Mielle Harvey.