Born in Edinburgh in 1959, Hew Locke spent his formative years in Guyana before returning to the UK to study Fine Art at Falmouth (1988), and Sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London (1994). He is a member of The Royal Academy of Arts (2022) and was awarded an OBE for Services to Art (2023).
Developing a practice that explores the visual codes of power and national identity, Locke draws attention to a range of subject matter, including royal portraits, coats-of-arms, public statuary, trophies, weaponry and costume. His ability to successfully fuse influences from both his Caribbean and British backgrounds, together with his own political and cultural concerns, makes for witty, multi-layered works which amalgamate modern societal concerns with historical subject matter. Applying a critical sensitivity to his creative practice, his work stands at a crossroads between cultural associations and historic references that interrogates the symbols of our age.
In 2015 his permanent sculpture commissioned to mark 800 years of Magna Carta was unveiled at Runnymede. In 2022 he unveiled major commissions for both the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; ‘Gilt’, and Tate Britain in London; ‘The Procession’. In 2024 his co-curated exhibition ‘What have we here?’ opens at the British Museum, and in 2025 a solo exhibition and major monograph will launch at Yale University before touring the USA.
Locke has exhibited extensively internationally, including solo shows and Biennales. His work is in numerous collections including The Tate Gallery, The British Museum, The Metropolitan Museum, New York, The Brooklyn Museum, The V&A Museum and the Imperial War Museum. Locke is represented by Hales Gallery, London, PPOW Gallery New York, and Almine Rech Gallery.
