Hew Locke OBE RA was born in Edinburgh, raised in Guyana, and lives in London. He completed a BA at Falmouth School of Art in 1988 and an MA in sculpture at the Royal College of Art in 1994.

In March 2022 his Duveen Hall Commission for Tate Britain, The Procession, was unveiled, and in September 2022 his work Gilt was the Façade Commission for The Metropolitan Museum and Art Gallery in New York. Solo shows have included Here’s the Thing at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2019), The Tourists on board HMS Belfast, The Imperial War Museum, London (2015), and For Those in Peril on the Sea for Folkestone Triennial (2011). His public artworks include The Jurors marking 800 years of Magna Carta, situated at Runnymede. Earlier this year his floating ‘Armada’ of 45 boats was part of the Entangled Pasts exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts.

Hew’s work often fuses historic sources with political or cultural concerns, merging influences from across the globe. He has curated a major exhibition ‘What Have We Here?’ at The British Museum, opening in October, “bringing people beautiful objects with awkward histories”. Public statuary and national symbols have long been of interest. Next year his series of 6 bronze boats Cargoes will be unveiled in King Edward Memorial Park, Wapping, reflecting the history of trade on the Thames. Monograph books include Hew Locke: Here’s the Thing published by Ikon Gallery 2019, and Stranger in Paradise by Black Dog Publications, 2011.