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Damon Locks: We Are Our People / Listen to This: March 23 - May 3, 2025

Current viewing_room

DAMON LOCKs

WE ARE OUR PEOPLE / LISTEN TO THIS

March 23 - May 3, 2025
 
 Opening Reception Sunday, March 23, 2-5pm
 

In Gallery I and II, Goldfinch proudly presents We Are Our People/Listen to This, a two-part solo exhibition of new mixed-media works from Chicago-based artist Damon Locks. We Are Our People/Listen to This marks Locks' third solo exhibition at Goldfinch.

 

In Gallery I, We Are Our People showcases a series of mixed-media works where Locks uses a blend of ink, pencil, and collage elements on wood panels to create intricate, layered narratives. Each piece emphasizes the individuality of its subjects, drawing attention to how each portrait interacts within the collective. "The hand remains distinctly present in the gesture of the mark-making," Locks notes, while the dynamic interplay of heavy marks and collaged materials invokes a sense of movement--like a poem that reveals more with each recitation--prompting viewers to consider how connections between forms allow for expression and weight. The exhibition's title derives from a piece of writing that Locks began performing during music shows in late 2024, as politics, death, and hatred took on a more tsunami-like presence in the United States.

 

In Gallery II, Listen to This features hand-drawn collages that emerged from the comic and graphic novel-making classes Locks taught at Stateville Correctional Center. This body of work transcends traditional comic forms, encouraging viewers to explore fractured narratives and abstract expressions. "These pieces became visual analogs to my sonic adventures, hence the title," Locks shares, illustrating how his artistic practice merges visual and auditory elements. The collages are rich with layered meanings, mirroring the complexity of the stories he encountered while teaching. 

 

A limited edition 7" record featuring two exclusive tracks created for this event will also be available.

 

Damon Locks: We Are Our People/Listen to This runs March 23 through May 3, 2025. The exhibition's opening reception takes place on Sunday, March 23 from 2-5pm. Stay tuned for information and dates of exhibition related public programs.

  • Download Exhibition Preview
Download List of Works
  • Damon Locks, Distortion, 2025
    Damon Locks, Distortion, 2025
  • Damon Locks, Mystic Determination, 2025
    Damon Locks, Mystic Determination, 2025
  • Damon Locks, Danger, Danger, Danger, 2025
    Damon Locks, Danger, Danger, Danger, 2025
  • Damon Locks, Darker! Darker!, 2024
    Damon Locks, Darker! Darker!, 2024
  • Damon Locks, Mendacity, 2025
    Damon Locks, Mendacity, 2025
  • Damon Locks, Light Explosion, 2024
    Damon Locks, Light Explosion, 2024
  • Damon Locks, There is Cause for Alarm, 2024
    Damon Locks, There is Cause for Alarm, 2024
  • Damon Locks, Listen to This, 2025
    Damon Locks, Listen to This, 2025
  • Damon Locks, Unsound, 2025
    Damon Locks, Unsound, 2025
  • Damon Locks, Individuality, 2022
    Damon Locks, Individuality, 2022
  • Damon Locks, Learn How to Swim, 2022
    Damon Locks, Learn How to Swim, 2022
  • Damon Locks, Make Escape Plans, 2025
    Damon Locks, Make Escape Plans, 2025
  • Damon Locks, Teacher, 2025
    Damon Locks, Teacher, 2025
  • Damon Locks, Safety Instructions, 2025
    Damon Locks, Safety Instructions, 2025
  • Damon Locks, Leave Everything Alone , 2025
    Damon Locks, Leave Everything Alone , 2025
  • Damon Locks, There's No Time for Delay, 2025
    Damon Locks, There's No Time for Delay, 2025
  • Damon Locks, 5 Principles, 2022
    Damon Locks, 5 Principles, 2022
  • Damon Locks, Ultra-Chromatic Prisms, 2024
    Damon Locks, Ultra-Chromatic Prisms, 2024
  • Damon Locks, This is Our List of Demands, 2022
    Damon Locks, This is Our List of Demands, 2022
  • Damon Locks, Freedom in this Lifetime, 2022
    Damon Locks, Freedom in this Lifetime, 2022
  • Damon Locks, It's Just the System, 2022
    Damon Locks, It's Just the System, 2022
  • Damon Locks, Can Freedom Be Had in Un-Free Places?, 2022
    Damon Locks, Can Freedom Be Had in Un-Free Places?, 2022
  • Gallery Installation Views

    All photos by Ry Thiel.
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  • WE ARE OUR PEOPLE

    Damon Locks

    How to keep moving while others don't matter and I don't really matter in the whole scheme of things 

    When people have gone missing 

    Or worse they're NOT missing 

    They are just not existing

    They are simply gone

     

    THREAT is the framework

    It's the justification

    For death and incarceration 

    We try to keep the smoke at bay

     

    But understand these are people

    Yes they are OUR people 

    Because we are OUR people

    And we ALL should survive 

     

    In this horror movie

    We expect that there are losses

    We accept there are losses

    And the killer must kill

    Our goal is endurance

    To survive to the credits

    And hope that they let us

    But that's not how things should be done 

     

    So when you hear of that woman on the south side of Chicago that no one has heard from for several days

    When you hear of the people crushed by military destruction with weapons bombarding and no hope of escape

    When you hear of that person lost to the system serving a sentence that extends well past their last day

    When you hear of the people in desperate need of assistance they just keep on shouting and no attention is paid

     

    Understand these are people

    Yes they are OUR people 

    Because we are OUR people

    And we ALL should survive 

     

    So, how to keep moving while others don't matter and I don't really matter in the whole scheme of things

    Can you keep playing on 

    While the tape is rewinding

    And the ache is reminding 

    The pain of terrible things 

     

    It's impossible to process

    This work in progress

    We MUST MAKE collective effort 

    To progress to the next stage 

    So move with intention

    And choose a direction 

    To treat the infection 

    Because we breathe that smoke every day

     

    And understand these are people

    Yes they are OUR people 

    Because we are OUR people

    And we ALL should survive

     

    Understand these are people

    Yes they are OUR people 

    Because we are OUR people

    And we should ALL stay alive

     

  • Photo credit: zakkiyyah najeebah dumas-o'neal
  • About the Artist

    Damon Locks is a Chicago-based visual artist, educator, vocalist/musician. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago where he received his BFA in fine arts. Since 2014 he has been working with the Prisons and Neighborhood Arts Project at Stateville Correctional Center teaching art. He is a 2025 recipient of the Creative Capital Award. In 2017 he became a Soros Justice Media Fellow. He received the Helen Coburn Meier and Tim Meier Achievement Award in the Arts in 2015. In 2019, he became a 3Arts Awardee. He spent 4 years as an artist in residence as a part of the Museum of Contemporary Arts’ SPACE Program, introducing civically engaged art into the curriculum at Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy High School. He teaches Improvisation in the Sound Department at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. As well as being a solo musician, Damon leads the Black Monument Ensemble, is a member of New Future City Radio, Exploding Star Orchestra and co-founded the band The Eternals.
  • Distortion, 2025

    Pencil, ink, acrylic, xerox, tracing paper on wood panel, 36 x 48 inches (91.5 x 122cm)
    ,
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  • You work in so many different forms—collage, screenprinting, music, DJing, just to name a few. Why do you work in so many different forms? What do you feel like it offers you?

    Damon Locks: I [use the form] that makes sense for the question or the conversation I’m trying to have. Essentially, I think I’m here to communicate about ideas, so I try and pick the best form to communicate those ideas. Some of the ideas I want to talk about are race and culture and movement and liberation and voice and transformation. So you know, sometimes you need drum machines and dancers, or turntables, or art supplies. 

     

    I also am interested in what the materials themselves convey. I feel like screen printing, for example, is accessible. People can understand screen printing, because signs are screen printed. Traditionally screenprinting was a medium to convey information clearly and publicly and I think that medium still holds that power. The medium itself feels more easily accessible than, say, oil painting. So screenprinting is somewhat like the boombox—the boombox was traditionally used to project music publicly. Though people don’t use them like they used to, the cultural imprint is still there. People still have associations with the boombox. People literally smile at me when I am carrying one around. There is an accessibility that is connected to it.

     

    Sometimes students will ask me about sticking with one medium because they are told to pick one thing and do that thing. And that’s not something that I really do. I feel like you should always do what you’re moved to do. Even if [your art practice] seems disparate, the longer you do it, the more the spaces around [your work] will fill in as well. And those spaces might touch upon some of the other parts of the things that you’re interested in and then over time, it will create this tapestry. It will all connect in an interesting way and it will take a shape, a form that is unique to what you do. And once it takes form, then people will understand it. They’ll be like, oh, I recognize that shape. I recognize that tapestry. That’s the Damon tapestry. And you will have filled in the connective fibers so it won’t seem disparate anymore. --Quoted from an interview with Damon Locks by Heather Radke in The Believer

  • Darker! Darker!, 2024

    Pencil, ink, acrylic, xerox, tracing paper on wood panel, 36 x 48 inches (91.4 x 121.9 cm).
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  • Mystic Determination, 2025

    Pencil, ink, acrylic, xerox, tracing paper on wood panel, 30 x 40 inches (76.2 x 101.6 cm)
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  • When you think about the audience for your work, who do you imagine?

     

    Damon Locks: I think the answer to that stems back to my childhood when I saw the large impact of punk music. The Sex Pistols, for example, and the huge public outcry against their music, showed me how music could have a political impact. Or groups on the Two Tone label, like The Specials, were addressing and combating a racist notions in England at that time and had a very political stance. Public Enemy was similar. They were having a political conversation with their art.  They were addressing political issues with their work and the public was responding to that work. The work created something that made the public do more than just dance and people engaged with political issues as a part of the work.I found it super intriguing that these groups were using their popularity to spread a political message. I was also interested early on in things that weren’t considered art. I was very interested in graffiti, and comic books, and of course both were artistic things, but they weren’t categorized as such. But those things were accessible to everyone and I really enjoyed that.

     

    All these groups were famous, and this allowed me to know who they were. But when I started to find out more about people Like Sun Ra or the The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians here in Chicago and other Black organizations across the country that weren’t famous but were doing stuff in community and making work that kind of served the community or addressed the community issues within their work. That became appealing to me. So it fed into that same kind of thought process, but not in like kind of a pop culture way.

     

    I think in my wildest dreams I’ve always wanted to have engagement with people through my art. It never seemed all that satisfying to know that there’s a piece of art just hanging on a wall. I wanted to figure out some way of having a more connected experience through my work. So I think that that’s part of my need to work in more than just one medium. I want to have a conversation. 

     

    When I started really focusing on making art, around 2007, I decided that I was interested in this idea of community and making work that connected to community. And I was very interested in making work that would speak to Black people. I wanted Black people to be my subject matter, and as I developed that, I was interested in figuring out ways of making that work accessible to the Black community. And what does that look like if you’re working in the art world? Can you make art galleries accessible? Can you make work, music, as accessible? What were the tools of that? --from Heather Radke's interview with Damon Locks in The Believer

  • Danger, Danger, Danger, 2025

    Pencil, ink, tracing paper, metallic tape, 22 1/4 x 29 inches (56.5 x 73.7 cm)
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  • Damon Locks, There is Cause for Alarm, 2024
    Artworks

    Damon Locks

    There is Cause for Alarm, 2024
    Ink, pencil, acrylic, ink, collage, tracing paper, xerox
    10 x 28 inches
    25.4 x 71.1 cm
  • Mae Frances Moultrie Howard, a Freedom Rider by a burning Greyhound bus in Anniston, Alabama, May 14, 1961. Credit: Federal Bureau of Investigation. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Students of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, shout insults at Elizabeth Eckford as she walks toward the school building on the first day of school in 1957. Schools in Arkansas integrated races after the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education.(Will Counts Collection: Indiana University Archives). (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Marchers with signs at the March on Washington, 1963. Original black and white negative by Marion S. Trikosko. Taken August 28th, 1963, Washington D.C, United States (@libraryofcongress). Colorized by Jordan J. Lloyd. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA (https://www.loc.gov/item/2013648849/). Photo by Unseen Histories on Unsplash. (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

    Mae Frances Moultrie Howard, a Freedom Rider by a burning Greyhound bus in Anniston, Alabama, May 14, 1961. Credit: Federal Bureau of Investigation.

  • Video - Damon Locks 3Arts Awardee

    Link to video on Youtube
  • Damon Locks School of the Art Institute Visiting Artist Lecture

    2023

    2023 Low Residency MFA Visiting Artists & Scholars Series Damon Locks

     
  • Selected Catalogs, Interviews, Reviews

    • Damon Locks Awarded Creative Capital Grant, for the project 'Live from CPS'
      News

      Damon Locks Awarded Creative Capital Grant

      for the project "Live from CPS" January 21, 2025
      This project stems from Damon Locks's belief that artists should work in conversation with the world around them. That looks like working, amongst other things, with schools. For this project,...
    • Chicago’s Damon Locks experiments with sound and poetry on new project ‘List of Demands’, Reset with Sasha-Ann Simons
      News

      Chicago’s Damon Locks experiments with sound and poetry on new project ‘List of Demands’

      Reset with Sasha-Ann Simons February 21, 2025
      Artist and musician Damon Locks is no stranger to creating something special through audio and spoken word. His latest project List of Demands is an experimental mixture of archival tape,...
    • Ear Expansion Podcast Interview with Damon Locks
      News

      Ear Expansion Podcast Interview with Damon Locks

      July 10, 2024
      In this episode of Ear Expansion, Damon Locks discusses his extensive musical and visual art journey, emphasizing the intersections between his practices. Starting from his formative years influenced by punk...
    • Damon Locks, The World Is a Different Place
      Publications

      Damon Locks, The World Is a Different Place

    • Damon Locks Featured in New City's Art 50 2022: Chicago's Visual Vanguard
      Press

      Damon Locks Featured in New City's Art 50 2022: Chicago's Visual Vanguard

      September 7, 2022
      Damon Locks, Sarah Ross and Timmy Châu Directors, Art and Exhibitions and Managing Director, The Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project Visual arts and education project PNAP connects artists, scholars and...
    • Damon Locks Selected for New City Magazine's 'Art 50 2023'
      Press

      Damon Locks Selected for New City Magazine's "Art 50 2023"

      September 5, 2023
    • An Interview with Damon Locks, The Believer

      An Interview with Damon Locks

      The Believer November 25, 2020
    • Damon Locks and Black Monument Ensemble Make Music for the Moment, Chicago Magazine

      Damon Locks and Black Monument Ensemble Make Music for the Moment

      Chicago Magazine April 14, 2021

Goldfinch • 319 N. Albany  Ave • Chicago, IL • 60612 • 708-714-0937. Gallery hours are Fri/Sat, 12-4pm, when exhibitions are on view.

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