PRE-ORDER ONLY
Item available from 24th July, 2025

£30 RRP
Special exhibition price of £25 for pre-orders and sales during the exhibition

Resistant Forms is a fully illustrated monograph celebrating the first major survey exhibition of Donald Locke (1930–2010), organised by Spike Island, Bristol; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; and Camden Art Centre, London. Charting the development of his work across Guyana, the UK and the United States over five decades, from the mid-1960s to the late 2000s, this richly illustrated volume offers an in-depth exploration of Locke’s expansive practice. Gathering newly commissioned essays by curator Grace Aneiza Ali, artist Eddie Chambers and art historian Giulia Smith alongside an extended introduction by Robert Leckie, Resistant Forms features full-colour plates of the artist’s work, rarely seen material from the artist’s archive and a comprehensive timeline. The book has been designed by London-based studio Wolfe Hall.

The exhibition is generously supported by the Ampersand Foundation, Henry Moore Foundation, the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, Alison Jacques Gallery and the Estate of Donald Locke.

The publication has been made possible with the generous support from Henry Moore Foundation and the Paul Mellon Centre.

DONALD LOCKE
Donald Locke grew up in Guyana and attended the Working People’s Art Class (WPAC) taught in Georgetown by Guyanese artist Edward Rupert Burrowes in 1947. He was awarded scholarships to study at Bath Academy of Art at Corsham from 1954–57 and Edinburgh School of Art from 1959–64, where he obtained an MA in Fine Art.

Locke returned to Guyana in 1964 to become Art Master at Queen’s College in Georgetown, where he taught until 1969. He then received a bursary to return to Edinburgh School of Art to study ceramics, after which he moved to London, where he lived from 1970–78. In 1979, Locke was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Sculpture at Arizona State University. He lived in Phoenix, Arizona until 1990 and then moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where he lived until his death in 2010.

Solo exhibitions include: Atlanta Contemporary Art Center (2024–25); High Museum of Art, Atlanta (2016–17); New Art Exchange, Nottingham (2009); Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art, Newark (2004); City Hall Gallery East, Atlanta (2003) and the Commonwealth Institute, London (1975). Group exhibitions include: Black Atlantic: People, Power, Resistance, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (2023); Life Between Islands, Tate Britain, London (2021); Back to Black: Art, Cinema and the Racial Imaginary, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2005); The Other Story, Hayward Gallery, London (1989); FESTAC ‘77, Lagos (1977); and the 12th São Paulo Biennial (1971).

PARTNERS
Ikon Gallery, Camden Art Centre, Alison Jacques, Ampersand, Henry Moore Foundation, Paul Mellon Centre

Image: Donald Locke, Reconstructed Bottle with Pearls #11 (Pearls for Mahalia) (2008). Ceramic, wood, artificial fur. Courtesy Estate of Donald Locke and Alison Jacques