Guyanese-British artist opens exhibit examining colonialism at YCBA

Kamini Purushothaman, Contributing Photographer

“Hew Locke: Passages,” a new exhibit at the Yale Center for British Art, offers a comprehensive glimpse into the multimedia work of the contemporary Guyanese-British artist. 

The exhibit, which features recent works and those from earlier in his career, invites viewers to consider the central themes of his work and their evolution.

Locke, known for his maximalist style of multimedia compositions that explore colonial narratives and legacies, has nearly 50 works on display in the new exhibit. 

The exhibit, accompanied by a new publication from the YCBA, opened on Oct. 2, with a series of events scheduled for the following days. Locke himself came to the YCBA to celebrate, analyze, and discuss the art and its narrative within the new exhibition space.

“A lot of the things I do, everything I do, is instinct, but instinct from decades of research, observation, and all that,” Locke said on a Wednesday press tour of his exhibit. 

Exploring themes of colonialism, contemporary British and global culture, and cultural memory, Locke’s new exhibit incorporates several series from his various forays into different genres and themes.

With works spanning three decades, the exhibit highlights the myriad techniques, styles and themes that the artist has explored and adapted to suit his thematic oeuvre. Alternating between complex, multi-media sculptures and life-size, monochromatic charcoal drawings, Locke’s style is not singularly defined or cornered. 

Throughout the exhibit, Locke presents complex historical themes and relates them to contemporary experiences. 

“The exhibition will take viewers on a journey into his vision of the world—dazzling, seductive, poignant, and sinister all at once,” Martina Droth, the director of the YCBA and a curator of the exhibit, said in a press release. 

Entering the exhibition on the 2nd floor of the renovated Louis Kahn building, viewers first encounter Locke’s “Veni, Vidi, Vici (The Queen’s Coats of Arms).” The work, a large reinterpretation of the recognizable British symbol, is covered with a multi-media assemblage of objects, which at first glance appear dizzyingly colorful and chaotic, but, as Locke explains, are intentional.

The piece, according to Locke, is made from twisted rope and sequins, materials often found in Carnival costumes and in youth-oriented art education curricula. Furthermore, the piece is dominated by red and green, inspired by Matisse’s use of the same chromatic palette. 

“The piece has a real honesty in the way that Locke is not hiding anything,” Lucinda Lax, a curator of paintings and sculpture at the YCBA, said. “It’s so interesting when you think about this idea of these constructed self-identities. The idea of construction is evident; it’s plain to see.”

Moving further into the exhibit, viewers are confronted with Locke’s experiments in sculpture and photography. In the “Ambassador” series, two of which are part of the exhibition, Locke challenges the standard images and objects of colonialism through complex reinterpretations of historical forms. 

One of the pieces, “Ambassador 4,” is similarly replete with many objects that, together, point towards Locke’s larger messages of anti-imperialism. 

Alongside Victorian-era flower symbolism, Locke’s piece includes a cutout design of an enslaved Black man by British illustrator and poet William Blake, whose exhibit is located on the floor above. 

“What I figured out is that you take it, you do a drawing of it, you transfer it into a laser-cut image, paint it gold, and all of a sudden it becomes a decorative object. And the uncomfortable perverseness of that I find really, really interesting,” Locke said. 

Throughout the back wall of the exhibit, Locke’s “How Do You Want Me?” series and his exploration of old banknotes and share certificates, alongside modern imagery, call into question modern perceptions of imperialism and how, through art, Locke is able to subvert such colonial narratives. 

His works, often heavy-laden with a seemingly random assortment of colorful objects, are, as Locke emphasized, intentionally chosen, with histories, associations, or visual connotations that subvert the traditional views of such controversial figures, such as Edward Colston. 

“I thought the artist’s freehand drawings were the most interesting parts of the exhibit,” Quentin Fonseca ’27 said.

The final stretch of the exhibit explores Locke’s connection to the Caribbean nation of Guyana, examining how the history of that nation and Britain has been intertwined, marked by the legacy of imperialism and the importation of slaves to the West. 

One such work, “Guyana House Boat 4,” depicts a domicile propped up on stilts — a typical structure in the country, which averages a meter below sea level. The difference in the watercolor, however, comes from the base of the house, which stands upon a patterned boat. 

“These were never going to be boats, but they turned into boats. And a lot of my sculptures in the past, if I hadn’t made a boat for a while, the sculptures would naturally form themselves into a boat-like thing,” Locke said.“Guyana, the name Guyana means land of many waters.” 

Boats, a common motif in Locke’s work, represent the British Empire and its colonial legacy, and feature prominently in the exhibit. In an installation located in the lobby of the YCBA, three more boats are suspended in the air, providing viewers with an initial taste of the larger discourse that the exhibit invokes. 

In conjunction with “William Blake: Burning Bright,” the YCBA’s current exhibition program provides a comprehensive look into two experimentalists, each inhabiting their own distinct eras of the British and global art historical canon. Blake’s works, ranging from the political to the mystical, annotate the political environment in Great Britain that Locke’s works challenge through a contemporary lens. 

The exhibit is set to run through January 11, 2026.