Confessions of a Design Thief: Garth Walker
January 18 - March 5, 2011

Opening Reception
Wednesday, March 2, 2011, 6 - 9 p.m.

Artist’s Talk
Meet the Artist “Confessions of a Design Thief: Garth Walker”- Building Cultural Identity Through Design.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011, 4:30 – 6 p.m.
St. Albert’s Hall, Room B70

Location
Dr. M.T. Geoffrey Yeh Art Gallery
Sun Yat Sen Hall
St. John’s University
8000 Utopia Parkway
Queens, NY  11349

Tuesday - Thursday: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Friday: 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Monday and Sunday closed
Curated by Prof. Elizabeth Deluna

Sponsored by
St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

This exhibition is free of charge and accessible to the handicapped.
For more information on this exhibit, or for directions please call (718) 990-7476.

About the Exhibit
An exhibition on Garth Walker’s first US retrospective of his work currently on exhibit in the Dr. M. T. Geoffrey Yeh Art Gallery at St. John’s University’s Queens campus.

Widely regarded as the pioneer of post 1994 ‘South African rooted graphic design’, Garth has taken the gospel of African creativity to conferences and workshops in more than 20 countries on all 5 continents. His image archive on South African vernacular street and township design is the largest extant, and covers literally everything from gravestones to type, signage and architecture.

Garth Walker founded two of South Africa’s best-known graphic design studios. Orange Juice Design in the early 1990s (acquired by Ogilvy South Africa), and more recently in 2008, Mister Walker. Both studio’s work in the corporate sector for many of SA’s best known brands on both large and small projects across a wide range of disciplines. But Garth’s real interest lies in “what makes me African – and what does that look like?” This forms the basis for much of his personal work. Since 1995 he has published his experimental studio graphics magazine ijusi, to world-wide acclaim. The non-commercial magazine provides a platform for creatives globally to explore their own personal views on the African experience.

Garth Walker is represented or exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Minneapolis Art Institute, International Center of Photography, National Portrait Gallery (UK), Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, Biblioteque Nationale de France, Victoria & Albert Museum (UK), The Smithsonian and numerous university and academic collections worldwide. His has been featured in well over 100 books and magazines. Garth is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI), British Design & Art Direction (D&AD), The Type Directors Club (TDC NY) and The St Moritz Design Summit. He is a founding Trustee of the South African Brand Design Council (BDC).