Hew Locke – Here’s the thing

It’s been a year since Hew Locke’s Ikon exhibition Here’s the thing, his most comprehensive exhibition to date. Since then the show has toured the United States, firstly to Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri and now currently showing at Colby College Museum of Art, Maine. We are pleased to announce that the exhibition dates at Colby College Museum of Art have been extended until 29 November 2020. Please note that the gallery remains closed temporarily, please check their website for reopening dates.

Locke’s exhibition involves a wide range of media – painting, drawing, photography, sculpture and installation, to explore 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. We recently caught up with Locke about his current projects:

I am still in lockdown at home, painting a series of “Corona Queen “ watercolours. My mind drifts back with real pleasure to the Ikon exhibition and the experience of walking around the show and seeing audience reaction: art needs an audience. The show is now in effective quarantine in Colby College Museum of Art in Maine in the US, as the gallery is currently closed due to the virus, and I think about the floating boats suspended in a darkened space waiting for audiences to return. I am currently working on a group of equestrian statues for my solo show at the Lowry Gallery which was due to be on right now but has been postponed. So I am really looking to forward to another new project in central Birmingham, it is great to have something positive in the future to think about. I have had a relatively easy lockdown, but I am always aware that for millions of people times are tough and the future precarious and uncertain.

Hew Locke’s exhibition catalogue for Here’s the thing is available to purchase here.