Steve Locke
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Biography
Steve Locke (b.1963) was born in Cleveland, OH and lives and works in the Hudson Valley, NY. Spanning painting, drawing, sculpture, and installation, Locke’s practice critically engages with the Western canon to muse on the connections between desire, identity, and violence.
Locke received his MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2001. Extending his commitment to a painting practice, he began to seek alternative ways to amplify public engagement around his art, partnering with institutions, municipalities, and even the US Postal Service to reach new audiences.
Throughout his artistic career, Locke’s work has questioned how we ascribe meaning to portraiture. Speaking about the series when you’re a boy…, which he began in 2005, Locke says that he makes “drawings and paintings that explore relationships between and among men. The exchange of looks, the privilege of looking and the wish to be seen are positions I explore to reveal the ways men respond, desire, and relate to each other.”
Other works by Locke imbue portraiture with menace and pain. #Killers (2017–present) presents viewers with skillfully rendered portraits of men and women who have killed Black people. These chilling images, in Locke’s words, “direct the viewer to the source of this kind of violence against black people. The source is these men and the inchoate, and unnameable whiteness that creates and supports them. … They are killers adrift in the lie of whiteness.”
Locke’s Homage to the Auction Block (2019–present) interrogates similar themes. Re-envisioning Josef A. Albers’s 1950–1976 Homage to the Square series, these compositions mark a significant formal departure from the artist’s earlier works. Imbuing Albers’s reductive imagery with an ominous charge, Homage to the Auction Block abstracts a slave auction block to its most basic geometric silhouette—reflecting Locke’s belief that “the basic Modernist form is indeed the slave auction block.” Queering the pure formalism and color theory of Albers, Homage to the Auction Block unpicks the intertwined histories of race and modernism.
Locke’s practice ultimately pushes viewers to confront and critically engage with a complicated present and painful past. As he concludes, “If art is anything, it’s a public discourse. I’m not making art because I’m trying to express myself or share my feelings with the world because my feelings are no different than anyone else’s. I’m not special because I’m an artist. What I can do is I can make people pay attention to things through composition, through color, through scale, through organization through conceptual frameworks. I can make people look at something and think about it.”
Locke’s work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including the daily practice of painting, Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA (2022); in the name of love,The Gallatin Galleries, New York University, NY (2019); Three Deliberate Grays for Freddie (A Memorial for Freddie Gray), curated by Pieranna Cavalchini, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA (2018); Love Letter to a Library, Boston Public Library, MA (2018); The School of Love, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Great Barrington, MA (2018); there is no one left to blame, curated by Helen Molesworth, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA (2013), traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, MI (2014); and Rapture, curated by Erin Dziedzic, Hall Street Gallery, Savannah College of Art and Design, GA (2008). Locke has participated in many group exhibitions, including The Myth of Normal: A Celebration of Authentic Expression, MassArt Art Museum (MAAM), Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA (2023); Feedback, curated by Helen Molesworth, The School, Jack Shainman Gallery, Kinderhook, NY (2021); The BIG Picture: Giant Photographs and Powerful Portfolios, Fitchburg Art Museum, MA (2020); Recruiting for Utopia: Print and the Imagination, Fruitlands Museum, Harvard, MA (2020); Coded, curated by Alexandria Smith, Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, MA (2018); Nine Moments for Now, curated by Dell Marie Hamilton, Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (2018); Gay, curated by Ivan Monforte, Longwood Art Gallery, Bronx Council on the Arts, NY (2014); Paint Things: Beyond the Stretcher, curated by Evan Garza and Dina Deitsch, deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA (2013); and Making a Mark, curated by Helen Shlien, Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA (2002). Locke’s works are in the collections of Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, Asheville, NC; Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY; Buffalo AKG Art Museum, NY; Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME; Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL; Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, MA; Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, MA; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA; Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA; and Tufts University Art Galleries, Medford, MA, among others. He is the recipient of many grants and awards, including the Rappaport Prize from the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum (2022); the Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2020); the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2014); the LEF Contemporary Work Fund Grant (2009); and the Art Matters Foundation Award (2007).
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Exhibitions
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Between Us
1 September - 15 October 2023 GermantownAlexander Gray Associates, Germantown presents Between Us, an exhibition gathering works by an intergenerational group of queer artists advancing the practice of portraiture. Confronting the cyclical progress and backlash of...Read more -
Steve Locke
your blues ain’t like mine 27 October - 17 December 2022 New YorkAlexander Gray Associates, New York presented Steve Locke: your blues ain’t like mine, the artist’s first one-person exhibition in Chelsea. Featuring recent figurative paintings and sculptures, your blues ain’t like...Read more -
Steve Locke
Homage to the Auction Block 10 June - 17 July 2022 GermantownAlexander Gray Associates, Germantown announces Steve Locke’s first exhibition with the Gallery, Homage to the Auction Block. This focused presentation of the artist’s ongoing Homage to the Auction Block series...Read more
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Public Collections
Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
The Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art, Rollins Museum of Art, Winter Park, FL
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, Asheville, NC
Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY
Buffalo AKG Art Museum, NY
Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR
Hall Art Foundation, Reading, VT
Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, MA
Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, MA
MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA
Rennie Museum, Vancouver, BC
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Tufts University Art Galleries, Medford, MA -
Videos
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Steve Locke
Anderson Ranch Arts Center 14 November 2022Since 1978, top contemporary artists have visited @Anderson Ranch Arts Center and produced quality artwork here in the Patton Print Shop. The Anderson Ranch Editions...Watch -
Steve Locke on "Homage to the Auction Block"
Alexander Gray Associates 11 July 2022Steve Locke discusses his 'Homage to the Auction Block' series on view as part of 'Steve Locke: Homage to the Auction Block' at Alexander Gray...Watch -
The Artist's Voice | Steve Locke with Evan Garza
ICA Boston 19 September 2013The Artist's Voice: Steve Locke with Evan Garza, September 19, 2013. Artist Steve Locke sits down with Evan Garza—curator, writer, and co-founder of Fire Island...Watch
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News / Events
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Steve Locke: the fire next time
MASS MoCA On view August 3, 2024Steve Locke's solo exhibition, the fire next time at MASS MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts, will be on view August 3, 2024. MASS MoCA's press release...Read more -
What you looking at? / Who you talking to?
A conversation with Helga Davis and Steve Locke 24 February 2024Join us at Alexander Gray Associates, New York for What you looking at ? / Who you talking to? A conversation between Helga Davis and Steve Locke on Saturday, February 24 at 3:00 PM.
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Steve Locke
Togetherness: For Better or Worse at Green Family Art Foundation October 7, 2023–January 21, 2024Steve Locke is included in a group exhibition, Togetherness: For Better or Worse at the Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, Texas.
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Steve Locke
The Myth of Normal: A Celebration of Authentic Expression at MassArt Art Museum (MAAM) October 5, 2023–May 19, 2024Steve Locke is included in a group exhibition, The Myth of Normal: A Celebration of Authentic Expression at the MassArt Art Museum (MAAM), Boston, Massachusetts.
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Melvin Edwards and Steve Locke
Then Is Now: Contemporary Black Art in America at Bruce Museum April 2–October 15, 2023Melvin Edwards and Steve Locke are included in the group exhibition Then Is Now: Contemporary Black Art in America at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, CT.
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Steve Locke
Equals 6: A Sum Effect of Frank Bowling’s 5+1 at University Hall Gallery at University of Massachusetts November 1, 2022–February 25, 2023Steve Locke included in the group exhibition Equals 6: A Sum Effect of Frank Bowling’s 5+1 at University Hall Gallery at University of Massachusetts in Boston, MA.
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Steve Locke: the daily practice of painting
Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech University October 13–December 17, 2022Steve Locke's one person exhibition the daily practice of painting at Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, VA.
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Articles / Reviews
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At Mass MoCA, Steve Locke’s ‘the fire next time’ chills to the bone
The Boston Globe29 August 2024 The artist nods to James Baldwin with an exhibition that brings to bear the everydayness of racial terror. NORTH ADAMS... Read more -
BITS & BYTES: Steve Locke at MASS MoCA
The Berkshire Edge6 August 2024 MASS MoCA presents the first exhibition from the Curatorial Exchange Initiative by artist Steve Locke North Adams— Now through November... Read more -
Alex Gartenfeld's Top Picks from Frieze New York Viewing Room 2023
Frieze11 May 2023 The Artistic Director of ICA Miami selects new paintings by Steve Locke, and iconic works by Carlos Villa, Rosa Barba... Read more -
Anderson Ranch Editions presents ‘Hot off the Press’
The Aspen Times16 February 2023 Brian Shure, master printer and director of Anderson Ranch Editions, has spent over 50 years mastering his craft — making... Read more -
Steve Locke
The New Yorker7 December 2022 This New York-based artist has honed an idiosyncratic language of abstraction, mingling references to cruising and to lynching with stirring... Read more -
Podcast: Seeing the 90’s Everywhere Right Now | With Helen Molesworth
Dialogues: The David Zwirner Podcast2 November 2022 In the premiere episode of a new series hosted by Helen Molesworth, the curator and writer talks with her friend... Read more -
Moss Arts Center exhibitions feature works from artists Craig Drennen and Steve Locke
Virginia Tech News4 October 2022 Works from two prominent artists are on display in Virginia for the very first time. The Moss Arts Center’s fall... Read more -
Artist Steve Locke awarded Rappaport Prize by deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum
The Boston Globe25 August 2022 Few contemporary artists have left Boston under such public, or such fraught, circumstances as Steve Locke. The artist, whose work... Read more -
A New Exhibition by Steve Locke to Open This June in Germantown, New York
Interior Design Magazine4 May 2022 Steve Locke has earned such accolades as the Guggenheim Fellowship for his art—painting, photography, sculpture—which centers on the sins of... Read more -
Artist Steve Locke to discuss public monuments in Gibbes Museum lecture
The Post and Courier11 November 2021 In April 2015, Freddie Gray was arrested by Baltimore police and badly injured during transport. The 25-year-old African American man... Read more -
Artist Steve Locke set for keynote speech
Charleston City Paper27 October 2021 The Gibbes Museum of Art’s Distinguished Lecture Series brings world-renowned artists to Charleston for programs designed to stimulate conversations around... Read more -
Teaching a New Inclusiveness at The School
The New York Times12 August 2021 KINDERHOOK, N.Y. — Feedback is what you get when a system’s output is looped through its input, as when Jimi... Read more -
GUSTON, WHITENESS, AND THE UNFINISHED BUSINESS OF THE VILE WORLD, By Steve Locke
Artforum5 September 2020 I AM IN ART SCHOOL, my first year in an MFA program. 1999. I am the only Black student in... Read more -
A painter challenges modernism with the harrowing history of slavery
The Boston Globe29 July 2020 Longtime Bostonian Steve Locke left the city for a job in New York last year after he withdrew his proposal... Read more -
Guggenheim Foundation awards fellowships to several local scholars and artists
The Boston Globe9 April 2020 A bestselling Cambridge author, a filmmaker at MassArt, and an illustrious public artist are among the local scholars and artists... Read more -
Boston was robbed of a slave monument at Faneuil Hall. Here’s what happened.
The Boston Globe28 February 2020 'The history of art, whether it's in music or written or what have you, has always been bloody, because dictators... Read more -
Boston lost a powerful, poetic work when artist pulled his ‘Auction Block’ slave memorial
The Boston Globe17 August 2019 On a recent sunny afternoon just outside the Great Hall at Faneuil Hall Marketplace, tourists sporting fanny packs and dollar-store... Read more -
Why I withdrew my proposed slave memorial at Faneuil Hall
The Boston Globe5 August 2019 by Steve Locke I am the artist who proposed and recently withdrew a design for a memorial artwork at Faneuil... Read more -
Steve Locke Withdraws Proposal for Slave Auction Block Memorial in Boston
ARTnews17 July 2019 Artist Steve Locke is withdrawing a plan to install a memorial slave auction block at the historic Faneuil Hall marketplace... Read more -
The Potential of Ancestral Memory to Reconcile Personal and Racial Histories
Hyperallergic26 October 2018 Steve Locke ’s racial imaginings uncover the quiet nuances of American history since chattel slavery. The deeply embedded traumas of... Read more -
Critics' Pick: Steve Locke, yours mine & ours
Artforum1 October 2018 For Steve Locke, the grid—that modernist symbol of order and reason—exemplifies a vastly different kind of modernity: antiblack violence. At... Read more -
The nearly erased artist behind the hidden face of the proposed Faneuil Hall memorial
The Boston Globe21 August 2018 Steve Locke sat in a tranquil museum courtyard the other day and pondered a controversy of which he never thought... Read more -
Another way to atone for past sins at Faneuil Hall
The Boston Globe21 July 2018 Former Boston Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey was racist. Edward Devotion, an 18th-century land owner, was also a slave owner.... Read more -
Outside The Gardner, A Place To Mourn Freddie Gray Through Color
WBUR28 June 2018 Outside the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, a massive vertical triptych with three distinct monochromes hangs from the front facade of... Read more -
An artist’s vision of where racial violence meets the American dream of home
The Boston Globe30 October 2016 In the summer of 2014, Steve Locke was savoring the early days of a sabbatical from his job as an... Read more -
Steve Locke: Family Pictures
Art Pulse Magazine5 October 2016 It was a short walk from Samson Gallery, where I attended Steve Locke’s opening reception for his solo show “School... Read more -
A Not-So-Brief Chat with Painter Steve Locke
Burnaway14 February 2014 After being holed up for three days in an iced-over Atlanta, we were thrilled to meet yesterday with Boston-based painter... Read more -
Steve Locke, Institute of Contemporary Art
Artforum5 November 2013 The main motif in Steve Locke’s exhibition “There Is No One Left to Blame,” curated by Helen Molesworth, was the... Read more -
Boston Painter Steve Locke: ‘It’s My Job To Bear Witness To My Time’
WBUR30 July 2013 “If you’re going to make paintings you have to up the ante about what painting can be,” says Boston artist... Read more -
Steve Locke
Art in America12 October 2012 For his second solo show at Samsøn, titled “you don’t deserve me,” Boston artist Steve Locke--known for installations of variously... Read more
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