The Many Layers of Ronald Lockett

During his devastatingly short life, artist Ronald Lockett created remarkable works of art with modest materials and easily accessible readymade objects sourced directly from his environment. Few primary source materials about his process and meaning behind his multidimensionally and conceptually layered works exist, in large part due to his untimely death from AIDS-related complications at the age of 32. Born in Bessemer, Alabama in 1965, Lockett lived in his childhood home with his mother until her death, and his soon thereafter, and never strayed too physically far from his hometown. However, the ways in which he was able to grapple with global devastation, politics, and warfare, and how they impacted him and his art, are remarkable to investigate. He was also the cousin of Thornton Dial, who consistently encouraged Lockett’s artistic output and was a mentor throughout his life.

A show of his work, “Once Something Has Lived It Can Never Really Die: The Studio Education of the Junk House” was recently on view at MARCH gallery in New York, from April 13–May 28, 2023. It demonstrated the wide-ranging techniques that Lockett deployed to create astonishingly poignant works through a highly singular aesthetic lens. It also highlighted the ways in which he focused on visualizing human-instigated events that resulted in significant loss, and how these happenings continue to impact the human condition in a seemingly never-ending cycle. The Holocaust, the activities of the Klan, and the Oklahoma City Bombing are all referenced in his works and are shown alongside pieces that demonstrate the resilience of humanity and nature.

Beyond the conceptual rigor and layers of symbolism that permeate his surfaces, the aesthetic qualities of Lockett’s work, and his ingenuity in combining forms and materials in space, is astonishing. Comparing artists can be somewhat reductive, but we are reminded of the assemblage works of Robert Rauschenberg, and how these two artists clearly shared an interest in working with what they had access to in order to make something spectacularly new.

The confidence with which he was able to juxtapose textures and images is truly mesmerizing to see, and his work feels so contemporary looking at it today. It’s a shame that he is not yet a household name, but with the support of galleries like MARCH, who continue to bring to life the importance of Lockett’s work and legacy, there will hopefully be more opportunities to contextualize his work in the history of art.