A combination of found materials and iconic imagery to create stage-set tableaux that address the iconographies of empire, history and collective memory is the proposition of the Guyanese-British artist Hew Locke.

“Much of my work has to do with the burden of history and the way it affects us today,” Locke explains in a statement.

“If I were not an artist, I would be a historian,” he adds.

“Hew Locke: Passages” is presented at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; there we will see a more exhaustive retrospective to date on the work of this acclaimed artist.

Covering from the 1990s to the present, “Hew Locke: Passages” showcases the full range of Locke’s practice, with more than 40 sculptures, collages and assemblages that examine the histories of colonialism across five continents, filtered through the current realities of global trade, migration and the diaspora.

“Hew Locke, Koh-i-Noor” (2005) will be on view in Houston as part of “Hew Locke: Passages.” Photo courtesy of MFAH

“Veni, Vidi, Vici” (The Queen’s Coat of Arms) is a work by Locke created in 2004 that will come to Houston. Photo courtesy of MFAH.

“Ambassador 4” is the title of this piece that will visit the Space City as part of the Hew Locke exhibition. Photo courtesy of MFAH

This piece titled “Where Lies the Land?” (2019), made with acrylic on wood with metal, plastic, textiles, enamel and found objects, will be seen in the exhibition. Photo courtesy of MFAH

Among the exhibition’s highlights are examples of charcoal drawings from the 1998 series “Infanta,” which feature large details as Locke reinterprets the imperial portraits by Diego Velázquez; his royal crests and intervened historical stock certificates; his suspended vessels, evoking both the transatlantic histories of slavery and the current refugee crises, and his reinterpretation of commemorative equestrian monuments such as “Sikandar,” “Ambassador 1” and “Ambassador 4.”

“It is a pleasure to collaborate with our partners at the Yale Center for British Art to bring Hew Locke’s work closer to Houston audiences,” says Gary Tinterow, director and holder of the Margaret Alkek Williams Chair at MFAH. “The scope and magnitude of the work of this acclaimed artist, whose powerful imagery reflects universal themes such as history, collective memory and cultural heritage, are deeply captivating.”

Hew Locke was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1959 and moved with his family to Georgetown, Guyana, in 1966. He returned to Britain in 1980 and earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Falmouth School of Art in 1988, as well as a Master of Sculpture at the Royal College of Art in London in 1994. In 2022, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York commissioned him to create a series of sculptures, “Gilt,” for the iconic building façade. His large-scale installation “The Procession,” commissioned in 2022 by Tate Britain, was subsequently shown at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston in 2023. His work is part of the permanent collections of the Yale Center for British Art, the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Pérez Art Museum Miami and Tate London, among others.

The dates for the Houston exhibition “Hew Locke: Passages” are June 21 to September 13, 2026.

In detail

The exhibition: “Hew Locke: Passages”

Where: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH)

Dates: June 21 to September 13, 2026

More information: www.mfah.org