Lisa Walker

For the Te Papa Tongarewa exhibition, I want to go to my bedroom but I can’t be bothered A Children’s Guide to the Jewellery (and Art) of Lisa Walker was created looking at Walker's work the guide was co-authored by Isaac du Toit and Megan du Toit and produced in conjunction with the 2018 exhibition which showcased Lisa Walker's 30-year exploration of what "Jewellery" can be.

In a review of a 2015 exhibition of Walker's work, art critic Warren Feeney wrote:

In 2015 Walker joined the photo-sharing website Instagram. She has noted that the site provides a 'huge hunting ground' for inspiration, and that currently she draws more from imagery she finds online than on objects in the physical world for starting points for her own making.

In 2015 Walker presented a guest lecture on her past and current work at Nordiska museet, Stockholm, co-organised by Konsthantverkscentrum, the Röhsska Museum for Arts, Crafts, Design and Fashion, and The School of Design and Crafts under the Iaspis programme.

With her background as a goldsmith, we can imagine that Walker could easily engage with the values and aesthetics of “doing something well.” However, deskilling and the use of readymades shift the value of the work away from craftsmanship—even though that is important as well—toward an artistic sensibility.

For the Obstinate Object exhibition of contemporary sculpture at City Gallery Wellington in 2012 Walker contributed a site-specific piece called BROOCH, where a brooch fastening and steel safety chain were affixed to a gallery ceiling, suggested a visitor could 'wear' the building.

Walker's work was included in Collecting Contemporary (2011–2012)and Bone Stone Shell (2013–2014) at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. She was also included in Wunderrūma: New Zealand Jewellery, a touring exhibition that showed at Galerie Handwerk in Munich, The Dowse Art Museum and Auckland Art Gallery.

In 1995 Walker moved to Germany, and from 1995 to 2001 studied under jeweller Otto Kunzli at the 'Klasse Kunzli' at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste München in Munich. In Munich, Walker established a successful international career as a jeweller, including being recognised with the 2010 Françoise van den Bosch Award for "work of an outstanding quality that influences and appeals to younger generations of artists internationally". In 2009 Walker returned to Wellington with her partner, jeweller Karl Fritsch.

Walker graduated from Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin, in 1988 with a Certificate in Craft Design. In Dunedin her tutors included German-trained jeweller Georg Beer and Swiss-trained jeweller Kobi Bosshard. After completing her studies, Walker moved to Auckland, where along with Areta Wilkinson, Anna Wallis and Helen O'Connor she established the jewellery workshop Workshop 6.

Lisa Walker (born 1967, in Wellington) is a contemporary New Zealand jeweller.