Artist in Residence 2020-21: Ahmad Walker

Ahmad Walker is a young multimedia artist who grew up on Harbor Road, giving him deep connections to the community and people of Bayview Hunters Point. It is this personal connection to the neighborhood that led Ahmad as an artist to Hunters Point Shipyard. As a youth he would look over the shipyard from his grandparents’ house in the Northridge Homes, never knowing that studios existed down there for artists to create their work and express themselves.

Ahmad says he would love to work at a studio in the artist community at Hunters Point Shipyard because not only is it close to home, but it will make the view he admired so much as a child much more significant. The Artist in Residence studio offers Ahmad a much wider space to work in so he can grow as an artist conceptually and further develop his technical expertise.

The media in which Ahmad works include sculpture, watercolor, acrylic and stop-motion animation. He created CD artwork for the local rapper MC Chezi and says the opportunity “to bring the album cover to life” was important as it symbolizes the soul and unity of the local area.

Ahmad says this residency will allow him to create work in the same space as former Artists in Residence, and will show other local Bayview Hunters Point artists that spaces for artists from the local community do exist through the STAR Artist In Residence Program.

The history of the neighborhood inspires Ahmad’s work to this day. He feels this residency is a major opportunity to “truly have a space for creation.”