Along with the millions of Black people who migrated north during the 1940s, Walker, only six, and his siblings moved to Harlem. As he grew, so did his interest in making visual art, especially painting and drawing. He recalls spending many of his weekends at the Modern Museum of Art. He attended the prized LaGuardia High School High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, a magnet public school for the arts, music, and theater.

Upon leaving New York, he received a BA in arts education in 1958 and an MA in drawing and painting in 1963 from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Walker dedicated himself to teaching and was an educator for nearly four decades, both at University of the Pacific for nineteen years and Georgia State University for seventeen years. After retiring in 2000, Walker spent his days building his art practice. He received the Atlanta Contemporary’s 2016 Nexus Award, which recognizes those who have made a major contribution to the city of Atlanta’s contemporary art community.

In 2018, Walker’s practice was brought into focus with a two-part career retrospective, Larry Walker Retrospective: The Earlier Years and Larry Walker Retrospective: The Later Years mounted at the Museum of Contemporary Art of in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Studio Museum has presented Walker’s work in Recent Acquisitions and Notables from the Permanent Collection (1985); Treasures from the Permanent Collection, 1970–1987, Part I: Contemporary American Art (1988); Collection in Context: Selections from the Permanent Collection (2000–2001) and Black: Color, Material, Concept (2015). Walker has been represented in the Museum’s permanent collection since 1983.