Skip to main content
Hew Locke

Hew Locke

Title
Honorary Fellow
Person Type
Honorary
Hew Locke

Biography

Honorary Fellow

Hew Locke is a British-Guyanese mixed media artist whose prolific political work has graced the world’s leading art shows and spaces for three decades. 

Admired for his colourful, democratic explorations of power and identity, especially royalty and migration, Hew achieved a BA (Hons) Fine Art in 1988 from Falmouth University, followed by an MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art, London in 1994. He went on to become a BA Painting tutor at Camberwell College of Arts from 2008 to 2015.

His first notable commission came in 2000 - a giant cardboard ship slumped between two columns at the Victoria & Albert Museum, and a reference to the institution’s problematic history.

Ten years later Hew’s work was shortlisted for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square. In 2015 his permanent public artwork commemorating the 800th anniversary of the sealing of the Magna Carta at Runnymede was revealed.

Today, Hew’s art is enjoyed in major exhibitions and collections across the world, not least the British Museum, Tate Britain, the National Portrait Gallery and The Metropolitan Museum in New York. He’s taken part in Biennials in Venice, China, India, China and Spain, and had solo shows across the UK and USA.