Steve Locke
For years Detroit native, Steve Locke, has been making images of male heads with their tongues sticking out. Lushly painted, in a wide-ranging palette, they are alternately disturbing, comical, vulnerable, and sensual. They trouble the historical propensity to image men as invariably authoritative and powerful, and instead explore a more ambivalent array of ideas and emotions regarding masculinity. The paintings evoke historical traumas such as the beheadings of the French Revolution, or the lynching of African Americans, as well as reference the more current anxieties of the last decade: terrorism, war, and torture. Whether embedding them in the wall of the museum, or propping them onto sculptural supports, Locke experiments with a variety of display strategies for paintings. In each instance, “business as usual” is refused, suggesting subtle hopes for new ideas and expanded freedoms.
Solo exhibitions of Locke’s work have been presented at institutions such as Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art and Detroit’s Museum of Contemporary Art. His work has been included in group exhibitions nationally including at The Drawing Center in New York, deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, and Sherman Gallery at Boston University. He is a recipient of grants from the Pollock Krasner Foundation, LEF …
For years Detroit native, Steve Locke, has been making images of male heads with their tongues sticking out. Lushly painted, in a wide-ranging palette, they are alternately disturbing, comical, vulnerable, and sensual. They trouble the historical propensity to image men as invariably authoritative and powerful, and instead explore a more ambivalent array of ideas and emotions regarding masculinity. The paintings evoke historical traumas such as the beheadings of the French Revolution, or the lynching of African Americans, as well as reference the more current anxieties of the last decade: terrorism, war, and torture. Whether embedding them in the wall of the museum, or propping them onto sculptural supports, Locke experiments with a variety of display strategies for paintings. In each instance, “business as usual” is refused, suggesting subtle hopes for new ideas and expanded freedoms.
Solo exhibitions of Locke’s work have been presented at institutions such as Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art and Detroit’s Museum of Contemporary Art. His work has been included in group exhibitions nationally including at The Drawing Center in New York, deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, and Sherman Gallery at Boston University. He is a recipient of grants from the Pollock Krasner Foundation, LEF Foundation, and Art Matters Foundation.
Courtesy of the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston
