Created in 2000 and endowed in 2010, the Rappaport Prize is an annual art award presented by deCordova through the generosity of the Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport Foundation.

We are thrilled to announce Steve Locke as the recipient of the 2022 prize. Spanning painting, drawing, sculpture, and installation, Locke’s artistic practice critically addresses the history of western art and interrogates the connections between desire, identity, and violence. Locke is a recognized teacher and author, and has offered moving reflections on the connections between politics and American art.

Steve Locke (b.1963 in Cleveland, Ohio), lives and works in Brooklyn and Hudson, NY. In 2001, Locke received his BFA and MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Locke has exhibited extensively, including solo exhibitions at the Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston, and Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where his 2019 work, Three Deliberate Grays for Freddie: A Memorial for Freddie Gray, was described by the Boston Globe as, “[A]bstract and enigmatic, at once a vivid display of beauty and a somber spot for mourning.” In 2020, Locke received a Guggenheim Fellowship. Long recognized for the excellence of his teaching, Locke is Professor of Fine Art at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn. He is represented by LaMontagne Gallery and Alexander Gray Associates. On October 28, 2022, Locke will open a solo exhibition at Alexander Gray Associates.