Steve Locke:
I Said What I Said
MONOGRAPHThe first career monograph of American artist Steve Locke captures the absurdity, curiosity, desire and rage that define historical and contemporary American consciousness and its legacies of discrimination, racial violence and spectacle. The forthcoming monograph, organized by MASS MoCA, explores the New York-based painter’s decades-long career in painting, drawing, installation, freestanding painting, public art, and the written word. Edited with text by MASS MoCA curator Evan Garza, Locke’s career monograph will feature an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Hilton Als, scholarly essays by Robert Storr, Dr. Kymberly Pinder, Dr. Karen Kurczynski, and artist Craig Drennen, and will include an in-depth interview with the artist and Helen Molesworth. The monograph will be published on the heels of Locke’s groundbreaking MASS MoCA solo exhibition, the fire next time, whose title is taken from James Baldwin’s groundbreaking book of essays first published in 1963 amid the growing civil rights movement.
Letting Locke’s work lead the design of the book, we decided to use only typefaces designed by Black type designers. Bayard is designed by Tré Seals (Vocal Type) and inspired by signs from the 1963 March On Washington For Jobs and Freedom. Freight Sans and Corundum are designed by Joshua Darden (Darden Studio).
View Steve Locke’s exhibition at MASS MoCA
ROLE
Graphic Design
FIELDExhibition
YEAR2026
LOCATIONMASS MoCA
SPECSHardcover, 9.5 x 11 inches, 256 pages
RELATED PROJECT:
EXHIBITION VISUAL IDENTITYBefore the monograph was published, I had worked closely with Locke on the visual identity, print material, and vinyl install for his exhibition at MASS MoCA. This includes an introductory wall text, an outdoor banner, a gallery guide, and a data-driven site-specific vinyl installation, A Partial List of Unarmed African-Americans Who Were Killed By Police or Who Died in Police Custody During My Sabbatical from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, 2014–2015 (2016).
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