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 interrogate the connections between desire, identity, and violence.
In 2001, Steve Locke received his M.F.A. from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Extending his commitment to a painting practice, Locke began to seek alternative ways to amplify public engagement around his art, partnering with institutions, municipalities, and even the U.S. 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.”
While I was at MacDowell I worked on a large series of drawings called “companions.” Having been an insomniac most of my life, I drew obsessively at night while making paintings from the Tongue Series during the day. The “companions” actually helped me to develop and create the series “#killer,” which dealt directly with whiteness and violence. The amount of snow and the stillness of Alexander resonate in this work – and in all of my work since.
