Sharon Lockhart
WINDWARD
Sharon Lockhart, still from FOGO, 2025 (full credit line below).
Sharon Lockhart
WINDWARD
10 May – 31 October, 2025
Fogo Island Gallery
Fogo Island Arts is pleased to present WINDWARD (2025), a new film installation by Sharon Lockhart opening at the Fogo Island Gallery on May 10, 2025.
WINDWARD builds upon core themes that have defined Lockhart’s career: an exploration of place and how people engage with landscapes, a durational approach to attention and focus through extended static takes, and a deep, long-term commitment to those who appear before her lens. Filmed on Fogo Island, located off the northern coast of Newfoundland—the easternmost province of Canada—the film unveils the island’s striking geological formations, unique climate, and austere beauty, brought to life through portrayals of youth.
During her 2022 residency with Fogo Island Arts, Sharon Lockhart encountered The Children of Fogo Island, one of 27 films directed by Colin Low between 1966 and 1968 for the National Film Board of Canada. These films were part of The Fogo Process a groundbreaking participatory filmmaking project aimed at fostering dialogue and strengthening a sense of unity among the island’s communities. Low’s innovative documentaries not only reshaped how the people of Fogo Island perceived themselves but also played a pivotal role in altering the island’s history. Inspired by Low’s approach—both in its temporal and social dimensions—Lockhart spent three summers immersing herself in the island’s communities and building meaningful connections with its residents.
Sharon Lockhart carefully observes the island’s geography, capturing its youth engaged in unstructured play amid fields of tall grass, metamorphic rocks, and crashing waves. Through her lens, the sea, sky, land, light, and weather become essential elements in shaping a narrative across her subtly composed tableaux. Figure and landscape enter into a close dialogue—reflecting a community’s adaptation to the northern climate and the learned ability, honed over generations, to make use of the land’s natural resources. In Lockhart’s subjects, geographic isolation manifests as an acute embodiment of their histories—shared legacies shaped not only by material lineage but also by a profound, intrinsic connection to the natural world.
WINDWARD is co-commissioned and co-produced by Shorefast/Fogo Island Arts, The Vega Foundation, and the National Gallery of Canada, with the support of The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery and Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
The exhibition will be on view at the Fogo Island Gallery from May 10 to October 31, 2025, and will travel to the Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Center for Arts and Creativity in Banff, Alberta from October 22, 2025 – January 7, 2026, followed by a presentation at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, in April 2026. The exhibition is presented courtesy of the artist and neugerriemschneider.
ABOUT SHARON LOCKHART:
Sharon Lockhart (b. 1964, Norwood, Massachusetts, US) creates installations, photography, film, painting and sculpture centered on the compelling and complex interactions between the various media and forms she employs, histories she encounters, and the communities and people with whom she collaborates.
In 2017, Lockhart represented Poland at the 57th Venice Biennale with her multidisciplinary project, Little Review. Solo exhibitions include: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Augarten, Vienna; The Jewish Museum, New York; Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius, Lithuania; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Fonzadione Fotografia Modena, Italy; Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon, Portugal; and Kunstmuseum Luzern, Switzerland. Lockhart’s films have been presented in the New York Film Festival, Vienna International Film Festival, FID Marseille, Berlin Film Festival, and Sundance Film Festival. Lockhart has been awarded the Herb Alpert Award, Pollack-Krasner Foundation Grant, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, D.A.A.D. Artist in Residence Fellowship, Berlin, Mike Kelly Foundation Artist Project Grant, and a Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard University, among others. Lockhart lives and works in Los Angeles.
Sharon Lockhart, still from WINDWARD, 2025. Co-commissioned and co-produced by Fogo Island Arts, The Vega Foundation, and the National Gallery of Canada, with the support of The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery. Courtesy the artist and neugerriemschneider, Berlin. © Sharon Lockhart, 2025.