Hew Locke's 'The Wanderers' at P·P·O·W Explores Colonial Legacies Through Ships and Souvenirs

Key facts

• Hew Locke's solo exhibition 'The Wanderers' is on view at P·P·O·W in New York through October 24.
• The exhibition features a suspended flotilla from Locke's 'Odyssey' series, including tankers, fishing vessels, and 16th-century galleons.
• The ships are embellished with tiny pennants, foliage, and colorful paint that appears as vibrantly aged patina.
• Locke's 'Souvenirs' series consists of mixed-media busts on antique Parian ware, depicting figures like Queen Victoria and George Washington.
• Skeletons embedded in the busts reference memento mori and implicate the figures in colonial afterlives.
• Locke says the figures are 'weighed down by the literal burden of history.'
• The exhibition includes works such as 'Spirit House 9' and 'Spirit House 10' (2026), 'Foreign Exchange 3' (2026), and 'Souvenir 27 (Alexandra)' and 'Souvenir 28 (Victoria)' (2025).
• Locke's practice explores how people, capital, cargo, and ideas traverse the globe, tracing the reaches of empire.