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Hew Locke - Artists - PPOW

Hew Locke
©Hugo Glendinning, Courtesy of Acme, Acme Archive

Through painting, drawing, photography, sculpture and installation, Hew Locke OBE RA (b. 1959) explores the languages of colonial and post-colonial power, and the symbols through which different cultures assume and assert identity. Fusing historical source material with a keen interest in current affairs, often through the juxtaposition or modification of existing artefacts, Locke focuses attention especially on the UK, the monarchy and his childhood home of the then newly independent Guyana. Locke spent his formative years in Guyana before returning to the UK to complete an MA in sculpture at the Royal College of Art in 1994. Locke's work in the permanent collections of including the Tate, London, UK; the Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY; Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL; and the British Museum, London, UK, among others. His work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions including Here’s the Thing which opened at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK in 2019 before traveling to the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO and the Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME. In March 2022, Locke presented The Procession, his response to the unique architecture and context of the neo-classical Duveen Galleries at the heart of the Tate as part of the annual Tate Britain Commission. Locke unveiled Gilt, the Façade Commission at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in September 2022. Raw Materials, Locke's first solo exhibition with Almine Rech, opened in March 2024. In fall 2025, the Yale Center for British Art will present the largest solo exhibition of Locke's work to date, spanning his career from the late 1990s to the present.

Hew Locke OBE RA

b. 1959, Edinburgh, UK
Lives and works in London, UK

Education

1994    
M.F.A. Sculpture, Royal College of Art, London, UK

1988    
B.F.A. Honors, Falmouth University, Falmouth, UK

Solo Exhibitions

2025
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT (forthcoming)

2024
The British Museum, London, UK (forthcoming)
The Procession, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK; ICA Watershed, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA
Hew Locke: Raw Materials, Almine Rech Brussels, Belgium

2023
The Procession, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK
Listening to the Land, P·P·O·W, New York, NY

2022
The Facade Commission: Hew Locke, Gilt, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY 
Hew Locke: Foreign Exchange, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK 
The Procession, Tate Britain Commission, Tate Britain, London, UK
Hew Locke: The Ghostly Tourists, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA

2021    
The Man Who Would Be King, The Lowry, Salford, UK

2020    
Here’s the Thing, Colby College Museum of Art, Maine, ME, USA
Mindful Vandalism, Hales Gallery, London, UK, and P·P·O·W, New York, NY (online)

2019    
Where Lies the Land?, Hales Gallery, London, UK
Hew Locke; Here’s the Thing, IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK; Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, OK

2018    
Patriots, P·P·O·W, New York, NY

2017    
Reversal of Fortune, Fringe Projects Miami, Miami, FL
For Those in Peril on the Sea, Perez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL
Cui Bono, installation in Bremen Rathouse, originally commissioned in conjunction with Der Blinde Fleck by Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, Germany

2016    
The Wine Dark Sea, Edward Tyler Nahem Fine Art, New York, NY

2015    
The Tourists, HMS Belfast, London, UK

2014    
Beyond the Sea Wall, Hales Gallery, London, UK
Give and Take, performance in the Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London, UK

2011    
For Those in Peril on the Sea, St. Mary & St. Eanswythe Church, Folkestone Triennial

2010    
The Nameless, Hales Gallery, London & Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, The Netherlands

2008    
The Kingdom of the Blind, Rivington Place, London, UK
How Do You Want Me? Hales Gallery, London, UK

2006    
Restoration, St. Thomas the Martyrs Church, Bristol, UK

2005    
Hew Locke, The New Art Gallery, Walsall, UK
Native and Colonials, Hales Gallery, London, UK

2004    
King Creole, installation on the façade of Tate Britain & at BBC New Media Village, London, UK
House of Cards, Luckman Gallery, California State University & Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, USA

2002    
The Cardboard Palace, Chisenhall Gallery, London, UK

2000    
Hemmed in Two, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK

Select Group Exhibitions

2024
Hurricane Season, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA
Narrative Obsession in the Post-Colonial Psyche, The 8th Floor, New York, NY
Entangled Pasts, 1768 to now, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK 
El Dorado (Part II), Americas Society, New York, NY

2023
Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 1950s-Now, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
Tiny Traces: Black and Asian Children at London’s Foundling Hospital, Foundling Museum, London, UK
Someone is getting rich, Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands  

2022
Myths of Observation, Hales Gallery, London, UK 
In the Black Fantastic, Southbank Centre, London, UK
A State of Matter: Modern and Contemporary Glass Sculpture, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, UK

2021    
Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art, 1950s — Now, Tate Britain, London, UK

2020    
Displaced: Contemporary Artists Confront the Global Refugee Crisis, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM
20/20 Vision: The Collection Remixed, Kunsthalle Bremen, Germany
LIFE DURING WARTIME: ART IN THE AGE OF CORONAVIRUS, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL (online)
20:20 Twenty Years of Collecting Contemporary Art, The New Art Gallery, Walsall, UK

2019    
Striking Gold: Fuller at 50, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA
How Light Gets In, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

2018    
Talisman in the Age of Difference, curated by Yinka Shonibare MBE, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK
The Everyday and the Extraordinary, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, UK (touring to Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, UK)

2017    
The Blind Spot, Kunsthalle, Bremen, Germany
A Global Table, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands
Diaspora Pavilion, Palazzo Pisania Santa Marina, 57th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy

2016    
XIII Bienal de Cuenca, Ecuador
Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art, China

2014    
Art in Embassies Program, Embassy of the United States Rangoon, Burma

2013    
The Shadows Took Shape, Studio Museum, Harlem NY
Glastress, White Light/White Heat, collateral event of the Venice Biennale, Palazzo Franchetti, Venice, touring to the Wallace Collection, London, UK

2011    
Global Caribbean, Little Haiti Center, Miami, USA; MIAM, Sète, France & Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Puerto Rico

2010    
Silkandar, shortlisted maquette for the Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square, London, UKew Adaptation, The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada
Holy Toy, Sølvberget Galleri, Stavanger, Norway

2009    
2nd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, Greece
2nd San Juan Triennial, Puerto Rico

2008    
Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY
Guangzhou Triennial, China

2007    
Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art, Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY
Encuentro Entre dos Mares – Bienal São Paulo, Valencia Biennale, Spain
Drawing on Sculpture: Graphic Interventions on the Photographic Surface, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, UK

2006    
Alien Nation, ICA London; City Art Gallery, Manchester & Sainsbury Centre for Visual Art, Norwich, UK

2005    
Et Maintenant? – What Now?, Crac Alsace, Altkirch, France
British Art Show 6, BALTIC Gateshead; Manchester City Art Gallery; Nottingham Castle Museum & Bristol

2004    
Hew Locke and Diana Cooper, The Drawing Room, London; Chapter Arts Centre; Cardiff & the City Gallery, Leicester, UK

Commissions

2022    
The Procession, Tate Britain, London, UK
Gilt, The Metropolitan Museum, New York, NY

2017    
The Blind Spot: Bremen and Art in the Colonial Era, (Commission for Bremen Town Hall by Hew Locke: Cui Bono), Kunsthalle Bremen, Germany

2015    
The Jurors, Commissioned by Surrey County Council and The National Trust to mark the 800th Anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta. Free to visit at Runnymede, UK

2013    
Selene, permanent sculpture, façade Nadler Hotel, Carlisle Street, Soho, London, UK

2012    
Gold Standard, Old Tide Mill School, Frankham Street, Commissioned by Deptford X, London, UK

2010    
Gold Standard, Old Tide Mill School, Frankham Street, Commissioned by Deptford X, London, UK

2008    
New Art Exchange, Commission for design of permanent artwork for café ceiling, Nottingham, UK

Public Works

2015    
The Jurors, Runnymede, UK

2013    
Selene, Hales Gallery, London, UK

2010    
Ruined, Brunswick Cemetery Gardens, Bristol, UK

Awards

2000    
Paul Hamlyn Award
East International Award

1996    
Wingate Scholarship combined with Delfina Studio Award

1995    
Discerning Eye New Discovery Prize

1994    
Wingate Scholarship combined with Delfina Studio Award
Madame Tussaud Prize for Art

Collections

Arnold Lehman Collection, NY
Arts Council of England, Manchester, UK
British Museum, London, UK
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Collection of Eileen and Peter Norton, Santa Monica, CA
Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH
Government Art Collection, London, UK
Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, UK
Kansas City Collection, Kansas City, MO
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO
Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, Germany
The New Art Gallery Walsall, Walsall, UK
Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL
RISD Museum, Providence, RI
Tate Galleries, London, UK
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK

Publications

2019    
Hew Locke: Here’s the Thing, Ikon Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and Colby College Museum of Art

2011    
Art, Power, Diplomacy-Government Art Collection, The Untold Story, Scala Publishing
Critical Dictionary, edited by David Evans, Black Dog Publishing
Sanctuary: Britain’s Artists and Their Studios, TransGlobe Publishing

2010    
Auto Focus: The Self-Portrait in Contemporary Photography, by Susan Bright, Thames and Hudson
Sculpture Now, edited by Jon Wood, Tate Publishing

2009    
South0South: Interruptions & Encounters, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery
Spacecraft II, Gestalten, Germany
Hew Locke: How do you want me?, Editions Jannink

2008    
Collage: Assembling Contemporary Art, Black Dog Publishing
Second Loves: Remixing the Ordinary, Museum of Arts & Design, New York

2007    
Infinite Islands – Contemporary Caribbean Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art
Drawing on Sculpture – Graphic Interventions on the Photographic Surface, Henry Moore Institute

2006    
The Portrait Now, National Portrait Gallery, UK
Et Maintenant – What Now?, CRAC Alsace

2005    
Hew Locke, New Art Gallery Walsall

2004    
Hew Locke, The Drawing Room London and Diana Cooper
Modern British Sculpture, Schiffer Publishing

2003    
Installation Art in the New Millenium, Thames and Hudson

1999    
East 2000 Catalogue, Edward Lucie-Smith, Norwich Art
School Art Today, Phaidon

1995    
Movements in Art since 1945, Edward Lucie-Smith, Thames and Hudson

Press

2020    
Marine, Brooke, “Get Up-Close to Princess Diana’s Wedding Gown in the Brooklyn Museum’s First Virtual Show,” W Magazine, October 30, 2020
Breakell, Jane, “Staff Picks: Monsters, Monuments, and Miranda July,” The Paris Review, September 25, 2020
Keats, Jonathan, “Trump’s New National Garden of American Heroes? Make it a Graveyard for Toppled Monuments,” Forbes, July 7, 2020
Rinaldi, Ray Mark, “Bringing Human Migration Closer to Home,” New York Times, March 8, 2020

2019    
Yussuf, Aurella, “Ruptured Histories: How Hew Locke is Peeling Back the Layers of Britain’s Colonial Past,” Frieze Magazine, May 20, 2019
Buck, Louisa, “Hew Locke discusses monarchy and model boats in new survey show at Ikon Gallery,” The Art Newspaper, March 11, 2019
Clugston, Hannah, “Hew Locke review – exquisite objects raise the ghosts of colonialism,” The Guardian, March 8, 2019

2018    
Vetrocq, Marcia E. “Hew Locke: Patriots,” The Brooklyn Rail, November 9, 2018

2014    
Fullerton, Elizabeth, “In Hew Locke’s Blinged-Out Installations, Every Toy Jaguar Has Its Place” ARTnews, April 16, 2014     

2012    
Beautiful/Decay Strange Daze, 2014

2011    
“Momento Mori,” ARC Magazine Issue 5, 2011
Hoffman, Jens, Indra Khanna, and Kobena Mercer, Stranger in Paradise, 2011

2010    
Schwabsky, Barry, “Review of The Nameless,” Art Forum, December 2010
Hoare, Natasha, “Hew Locke,” Don’t Panic, November 8, 2010
Kunstforum, February 2010

2009    
Locke, Hew, “The World’s Next Top Sexy Black Artist,” NY Arts Magazine, 2009
Locke, Hew, Hew Locke – How Do You Want Me?, 2009

2008    
“How Do You Want Me? Feature,” Art World, April/May 2008
West, Richard, “How Do You Want Me? Interview,” Source Photographic Review, Summer 2008
“Kingdom of the Blind Review,” The Evening Standard, 2008

2007    
Holmes, Pernilla, “Swords, Lizards, and the Queen,” ARTnews, October 2007

2006    
“Natives and Colonials Review,” Sculpture Journal, Volume 15.2, 2006

2005    
“House of Cards Review,” Art Papers, March/April 2005
Contemporary, Issue 73, 2005
Locke, Hew, Kris Kuramitsu, and Prof. Sarat Maharaj, Hew Locke, 2005

2004    
“House of Cards Review,” Los Angeles Times, November 6, 2004
“House of Cards Review,” Art Forum On-line, 2004

2002    
“The Cardboard Palace Review,” Art Forum On-line, 2002
“The Cardboard Palace Review,” Art Monthly, June 2002
“The Cardboard Palace Review,” Contemporary, June 2002
“The Cardboard Palace Review,” Frieze, Issue 70, 2002

Select Bibliography

2023
Olin, Ferris, editor. The Brodsky Center at Rutgers University: Three Decades, 1986-2017. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2023. Illus. pp. 72.

2022
Diamond, Anjuli Nanda, editor. “When Artists Speak Truth...” An Incomplete Archive of Activist Art, vol. 2, The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation/Verlag GmbH, New York/Munich, 2022. Illus. pp. 45.
Franke, Anselm, Elisa Giuliano, et al., editors. Ceremony (Burial of an Undead World), 1st ed., Spector Books, Leipzig, 2022. Illus. pp. 60–61. 

2011
Locke, Hew. Stranger In Paradise. Black Dog Publishing, 2011. 

Selected Works

Selected Works Thumbnails
Hew Locke
Raw Materials 1, 2022
acrylic on cotton warp satin, with appliquéd fabrics and chord, cotton, and anodized aluminum
76 x 57 7/8 ins.
193 x 147 cm

Hew Locke
Raw Materials 1, 2022
acrylic on cotton warp satin, with appliquéd fabrics and chord, cotton, and anodized aluminum
76 x 57 7/8 ins.
193 x 147 cm

Hew Locke
The Survivor, 2022
wood and mixed media
88 5/8 x 124 3/4 x 29 1/2 ins.
225 x 317 x 75 cm

Hew Locke
The Survivor, 2022
wood and mixed media
88 5/8 x 124 3/4 x 29 1/2 ins.
225 x 317 x 75 cm

Hew Locke, Souvenir 9 (Queen Victoria), 2019

Hew Locke
Souvenir 9 (Queen Victoria), 2019
mixed media on antique Parian ware
17 3/8 x 10 5/8 x 10 1/4 ins.
44.1 x 27 x 26 cm

Hew Locke, Hamilton, Central Park, 2018

Hew Locke
Hamilton, Central Park, 2018
c-type photograph with mixed media
72 x 48 ins.
182.9 x 121.9 cm

Hew Locke, Confederate States of America Loan 3, 2018

Hew Locke
Confederate States of America Loan 3, 2018
acrylic ink and acrylic pen on antique share certificates
17 1/8 x 13 7/8 ins.
43.4 x 35.2 cm

Hew Locke, Serpent of the Nile (Salient), 2007

Hew Locke
Serpent of the Nile (Salient), 2007
unique C-type photograph
40 x 30 ins.
101.6 x 76.2 cm

Hew Locke
Raw Materials 1, 2022
acrylic on cotton warp satin, with appliquéd fabrics and chord, cotton, and anodized aluminum
76 x 57 7/8 ins.
193 x 147 cm

Hew Locke
Raw Materials 1, 2022
acrylic on cotton warp satin, with appliquéd fabrics and chord, cotton, and anodized aluminum
76 x 57 7/8 ins.
193 x 147 cm

Hew Locke
The Survivor, 2022
wood and mixed media
88 5/8 x 124 3/4 x 29 1/2 ins.
225 x 317 x 75 cm

Hew Locke
The Survivor, 2022
wood and mixed media
88 5/8 x 124 3/4 x 29 1/2 ins.
225 x 317 x 75 cm

Hew Locke, Souvenir 9 (Queen Victoria), 2019

Hew Locke
Souvenir 9 (Queen Victoria), 2019
mixed media on antique Parian ware
17 3/8 x 10 5/8 x 10 1/4 ins.
44.1 x 27 x 26 cm

Hew Locke, Hamilton, Central Park, 2018

Hew Locke
Hamilton, Central Park, 2018
c-type photograph with mixed media
72 x 48 ins.
182.9 x 121.9 cm

Hew Locke, Confederate States of America Loan 3, 2018

Hew Locke
Confederate States of America Loan 3, 2018
acrylic ink and acrylic pen on antique share certificates
17 1/8 x 13 7/8 ins.
43.4 x 35.2 cm

Hew Locke, Serpent of the Nile (Salient), 2007

Hew Locke
Serpent of the Nile (Salient), 2007
unique C-type photograph
40 x 30 ins.
101.6 x 76.2 cm

Videos

Hew Locke shares the inspiration behind his work and reflects on the process of making the 2022 Tate Britain Commission, The Procession.

Hew Locke: Here's the Thing, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK, 2019
Organised by Ikon Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and Colby College Museum of Art