Donald Locke
Sabo Kpade, Artforum
July 2025
A more resonant show could have emerged from “Resistant Forms,” Spike Island’s survey of Donald Locke’s work. That version of “Resistant Forms” might have begun with a piece that seemed marginalized by its placement here: the sculpture Pomona Blue, 1985–86, a headless and armless figure evocative of Sarah Baartman. Baartman (ca. 1789–1815), dubbed the Hottentot Venus, was exhibited in nineteenth-century Europe as a curiosity until her posthumous return to South Africa in 2002. Technically, the brilliance of Pomona Blue’s rounded form is undeniable. Locke’s virtuosity is clear in the figure’s generous yet substantial anatomy, the form’s coherence and polished surface. It is a profound act of reclamation by Locke (1930–2010), a Guyanese artist who worked in Britain and the United States. He created a new lineage for her beyond transatlantic slavery, addressing Greco-Roman sculpture and ancient archetypes. What if this sculpture had instead been the show’s centerpiece, its centrifugal force with energy spiraling outward? […]