Elspeth Walker (b.1997, Warrington) is a visual artist and writer, whose work offers an alternative archive as a way to examine class, feminism, memory and spatial understanding. With an MA in Writing from the Royal College of Art, London, her work examines materiality and experimental modes of writing, alongside art focused articles. Her drawing practice comes from her writing experiments, and offers a new visual language where words are not sufficient. Exploring how archives are often rigid structures, mostly for the middle to upper classes, Walker’s visual art practice uses memory through psychogeography and abstract methods to create bodies of work that propose a new way to archive the self, family and social history. Her two main bodies of work: Memory Mapping and Lineage of Threads, exemplify this, with one recalling space from memory, and the other offering a reconciliation of a maternal heritage of craft. Using oil sticks, pastels and acrylic paint on various materials, Walker also creates symbols for negotiating emotional states,  again asserting something temporal and personal as valid for the archive, influenced by surrealism and other artists such as Louise Bourgeois and Agnes Martin. 

Her artwork has been exhibited across the UK, notably at the  It Starts with a Thread, Whitechapel Gallery, 2023-24, Bad Art, Soho, London, 2023, and We are Family, ESPS, St Leonards on Sea 2024. She has undergone residencies internationally with Cornwall Zine Library and Descover Artists.  Walker’s writing has been published in various magazines and journals, including CLOT, Culturala, SICK Magazine, and Ache. Her pamphlet ‘Dedications’ was published by If a Leaf Falls Press in 2024.  Elspeth is the founder of Otherwise Implied, a collaborative curatorial programme, with plans to expand in 2026, after two successful exhibitions and one publication. She was also trustee at the Photographers Gallery from 2020-2024. 

Elspeth also works as a workshop facilitator in a variety of writing and art mediums.She has worked with Stylist Magazine, Painting Progress, Lavender Arts, at Torriano Meeting House, Naruto Gallery, Lipton Tea Kingston, Battersea Powerstation, Earls Court Development, and delivering workshops at The Drawing Room and in Tate Modern for private groups. Her work seeks to open up artistic pathways for all, creating fun open spaces.