Former professional baseball player and commercial artist Gene Locklear stopped in to visit with our youth this afternoon to encourage them to be determined and to follow their dreams.
Former professional baseball player and commercial artist Gene Locklear stopped in to visit with our youth this afternoon to encourage them to be determined and to follow their dreams. Gene visited Tribal Chairman Lowery and the Pembroke Boys & Girls Club. Being from the Union Chapel community, Gene talked about how he decided that he wanted to be an artist and a baseball player in 2nd grade at Union Chapel Elementary School.
This visit is part of the Museum of the Southeast American Indian's Lloyd Oxendine Artist-in-Residence program. The residency, which kicked off today, will feature Gene Locklear March 17 - 22. Gene played major league baseball with the Cincinnati Reds, San Diego Padres and New York Yankees and in Japan from 1969 until retiring in 1979. He also is a commercial artist, but is known locally for some of the most well known drawings of Henry Berry Lowrie and Rhoda. Today after speaking with the students, he visited individual classes and discussed various art styles. In one class he drew a sketch of Henry and the children followed along, while another focused on landscapes.
Locklear, an enrolled citizen of the Lumbee Tribe, has produced works of all sizes in oils, acrylics and pencil. Locklear’s styles include realism, impressionism and abstract, with subjects that include Native American and Western figures and landscapes, professional athletes from countless sports and animals.
There will be several opportunities to meet him in person throughout this week. On Tuesday, at 6 pm, you can see Gene and his artwork in person at the Exhibition Opening and Panel Discussion: “From the Pitcher’s Mound to the Easel: The Life and Career of Athlete and Artist Gene Locklear" at the Museum of the Southeast American Indian on the campus of UNC Pembroke.
Lloyd Earl Oxendine (1942-2015), who was Lumbee and from Pembroke, devoted his art career to raising the profile of Native American art while fighting for its place within the American art canon. In 1972, he opened one of the first art galleries in SoHo in New York City, devoted exclusively to showing contemporary American Indian art. Oxendine later served as the director of Native North American Artists and curator for the American Indian Community House, where he curated more than 40 art shows.
During the residency, Locklear will participate in studio hours open to the public, co-curate an exhibit, create an exhibit based on public programming and participate in a program discussion about Southeastern American Indian art, culture, history, identity and personal legacy.
Events to be held in the museum in Old Main include:
• March 18:
◦ Drop-in Studio Hours, 2-4 p.m.
◦ Exhibition Opening and Panel Discussion: “From the
Pitcher’s Mound to the Easel: The Life and Career of
Athlete and Artist Gene Locklear,” 6 p.m.
• March 19: Drop-in Studio Hours, 10 a.m.-noon
• March 20: Drop-in Studio Hours, 9 a.m.-noon
• March 21: Drop-in Studio Hours, 9 a.m. -noon
• March 22: MSAI open house and art activity, 11 a.m.- 4 p.m.
The weeklong residency embodies Lloyd Oxendine’s and the Museum of the Southeast American Indian (MSAI) shared lifelong mission to educate the public about contemporary American Indian art while supporting both emerging and established artists.
To learn more about the Lloyd Oxendine Artist-in-Residence, visit uncp.edu/museum.
