Central to Steve Locke’s practice are the relationships between and among men. The exchange of looks, the privilege of looking and the wish to be seen are positions he explores to reveal the ways men respond, desire, and relate to each other. In this way, the separate paintings or drawings in when you’re a boy… (2005–present) are completed by placing them in a relationship that is influenced by the rectangular supports and the gazes with the drawings.
The images come from a variety of sources - “my observational practice, movies, pornography, web surfing - basically I see someone and draw him. These drawings are the basis of my painting practice. But in addition to being a record of seeing, they function as notes to myself about a particular person or encounter. They document something about the men I have seen - their strength, beauty, cruelty, cowardice, energy, power, clothing - that I find compelling enough to draw and take back to my studio.”
In its entirety, Locke likens when you’re a boy… to a “catalogue of the pleasures, desires, and fears of a gay black man. Like a chapel for the unrestricted and shameless gaze I was not allowed when I was a boy.”