Kara Walker will be the next artist to fill Tate Modern’s vast Turbine Hall

Tate Modern’s enormous Turbine Hall is one of the art world’s most iconic spaces. A perfect place for huge groups of unruly school children to mingle over a packed lunch, it also plays host to some of the gallery’s best-known projects.

This morning Tate announces American artist Kara Walker is set to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Louise Bourgeois, Rachel Whiteread, and Tacita Dean – the multidisciplinary practitioner will bring a site-specific new work to London in October of this year.

Tate Modern director Francis Morris describes the thought of Kara Walker responding to “the industrial scale” of the hall as “a hugely exciting proposition.” Noting the artist’s ability to address history and identity with, “a powerful directness, but also with great understanding, nuance and wit,” Morris praises her ability to “fearlessly tackle” some of the more complex issues that each of us are forced to face here in the 21st century.

It will not be the first time that Kara has worked on a vast scale either. In 2014 she debuted a sugar-coated sphinx in Brooklyn’s now-derelict Domino Sugar Refinery, while 2017 saw her construct a steam-powered organ as part of the Prospect.4 triennial in New Orleans.

Walker’s work will be on display at the Turbine Hall 2 October 2019 to 5 April 2020.