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ART FULL Head Games LOCAL ARTIST STEVE LOCKE OPENS HIS FIRST SOLO EXHIBITION AT THE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART. BY JESSICA LANIEWSKI heights throughout the exhibition to replicate the diversity of perspectives in the real world. Many of Locke's paintings are provocative for their frank expressiveness. "There are a lot of scary paintings in most museums," says Locke, an associate professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. "But we are also in a big, scary time as a nation and a lot of grotesque things are happening. I think that fear, oppression, and doubt come out in my work because it's in the world we live in." The museum features all new work for a show that marks a milestone for Locke. Working alone in his studio, he says, "I don't second-guess myself anymore." Through October 27 at the Institute for Contemporary Art, 100 Northern Ave., 617-478-3100; icaboston.org BC A Brief History by Steve Locke, 2005–2012. PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEWART CLEMENTS S teve Locke challenges ideas about gender and power in his 12-work exhibition at the ICA, "There Is No One Left to Blame." Helen Molesworth, the Barbara Lee Chief Curator at the ICA, organized the Boston-based artist's first solo show at the museum after seeing his work at the Samson Gallery in the South End. Many of Locke's paintings subvert traditional depictions of men as heroes or authority figures—namely, his images of men sticking out their tongues. "Now it's easier for me to access images and to make paintings about men in conflict without making the paintings seem heroic or larger than life," says Locke, who works in oil on canvas, panels, and linen. The new paintings will be mounted on both the walls and on sculptural supports, at different 76 BOSTONCOMMON-MAGAZINE.COM 076_BC_SC_ArtFull_Sept1ep13.indd 76 8/2/13 2:32 PM