Copperfield has announced the representation of British artist Ty Locke (b. 1996, Maidstone), whose second solo exhibition with the gallery will take place in 2026.
Ty Locke’s work blends accessibility, wit and sexuality to respond to his position in the world. He is interested in transforming mundane objects into sculptures imbued with personality and tension, often through labour-intensive means.
Locke’s recent work deals with his upbringing in Kent, growing up queer as one of 7 siblings in a lower working-class family. Using cheap domestic items such as plastic stools, cigarette papers, or kitchen knives drawn from his childhood, Locke reinvents their purpose and function to engage in broader social commentaries around class and sexuality. The strenuous and meticulous process of working with such materials becomes therapeutic, meditative, and a way of making sense of the world. In these deeply personal sculptures, the initially humorous presentation gives way to the emotional depth of the topics explored, revealing jarring juxtapositions.
His work has been presented internationally including at Turner Contemporary, Margate; Matt’s Gallery, London; National Liberty Museum, Philadelphia; Material, Mexico City; LAM Museum, Lisse; MAD Museum, Brussels; Quench, Margate; MOCA London; Commune, Vienna; Copperfield, London, and he was a resident at Studio Bloc M74, Mexico, supported by Knotenpunkt.
His work is held in the collections of Cloud Seven, Brussels; POC collection, Brussels; LAM Museum, Lisse; Crab Museum, Margate; Ingar Dragset, Norway; Maarten Baas, Netherlands; S. Davíðsdóttir, UK; Thomas/De Prez collection, UK; Mauro Mattei Art Trust, UK; Isabel and Agustín Coppel collection, Mexico. MORE:@tylocke.art
