Hales Gallery recently posted this Artwork Spotlight. Hew Locke’s “Sikandar 2” (2025) is at Frieze London (Regent’s Park, Hales Gallery, Booth A24) from October 14 to 18, 2026.
Description: At Frieze London 2026, Hales is delighted to debut “Sikandar 2” (2025), a new sculpture by Hew Locke OBE RA, marking the artist’s return to the equestrian monument as a symbol of power, history and collective memory.
The work builds on Locke’s earlier ‘Sikandar’ (2010), shortlisted for the Fourth Plinth commission in Trafalgar Square, and ‘The Ambassadors’ (2021–22), featured in Ekow Eshun’s landmark exhibition ‘In the Black Fantastic’ at the Hayward Gallery, London, in 2022.
Depicting an imagined Black rider adorned with an intricate accumulation of medals, coins, beads and heraldic symbols, ‘Sikandar 2’ brings together fragments of imperial histories and cultural identities. Through its richly layered surface, Locke transforms the traditional language of military heroism, inviting reflection on how power is represented, celebrated and remembered.
[Images: Hew Locke, Sikandar 2, 2025. Photos by Damian Griffiths.]