Hew Locke’s “Patriots” is on view until November 10, 2018, at P.P.O.W. Gallery, located at 535 West 22^nd Street, New York, New York.

The exhibition continues Locke’s investigation into the role public statues play in the way national identity and history are formed. According to PPOW’s press release, “The interest was initially born out of seeing a statue of Queen Victoria taken down during his childhood in Georgetown, Guyana—an event that topped his notion that the status quo was in fact static. [. . .] Embarking on a project that he dubbed the “Impossible Proposals,” Locke began photographing [. . .] iconic statues [. . .], then embellishing the photographs with objects, creating elaborate fetish figures imbued with a history that was largely being overlooked.”

The exhibition at P.P.O.W. takes as a starting point, a series of contentious sculptures in the U.S., including Peter Stuyvesant, George Washington, J. Marion Sims, Alexander Hamilton, and Christopher Columbus, among others.

For full press release, see https://www.ppowgallery.com/sites/default/files/HL_2018.pdf

For more information, see https://www.ppowgallery.com/artist/hew-locke/work