Horizontal Shift 1980
 
Acrylic on canvas
 
Signed, titled and dated on reverse stretcher bar.
 
A fine large work from Loker's early period, these paintings took a considerable time to complete, with Loker balanced on boards straddling the work which was laid on the floor in order to avoid paint drips. The series of horizontals were painstakingly drawn out and scaled before being painted. Similar works from this early series from the late 1970's are in many public collections.
 
John Loker was born in 1938 in Leeds Loker studied graphic design at Bradford College of Art and Design between 1954 and 1958, where he befriended David Hockney, David Oxtoby, and Norman Stevens. In 1960 Loker moved to London to study painting at the Royal college of Art and graduated in 1963; in the same year, Loker was awarded the Abbey Minor Travelling Scholarship.
 
John Loker has exhibited in some of London’s major institutions, the Tate Britain, Royal Academy, The Barbican as well as Cartwright Hall Gallery, Bracford, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, and in various galleries internationally. His works have been acquired by numerous institutions such as the Tate, Leeds and Manchester Art Galleries.
 
Loker's first one-man exhibition "Horizontals and drawings" was held at Angela Flowers Gallery. London in October–November 1970. Flowers Gallery continues to regularly show Loker's work and plans to organise a solo exhibition in 2018 on the occasion of the artist's 80th birthday, in collaboration with Cartwright Hall Gallery, Bradford Museums.
 
John lives and works in East Anglia.
 
His work is held in the following collections:
 
Arts Council of Great Britain
 
British Council
 
Contemporary Art Society
 
De Beers Department of the Environment
 
Deutsche Bank AG, London
 
Dudley City Art Gallery
 
Ferens Art Gallery, Hull
 
Hunterian Collection, Glasgow
 
IBM
 
Leeds City Art Gallery
 
Lloyds TSB Group PLC, London
 
Manchester City Art Gallery
 
Power Institute of Fine Art, Sydney
 
Rugby City Art Gallery
 
Tate Gallery
 
Unilever
 
Van Reekumgaler, Apeldoorn
 
Victoria and Albert Museum
 
Wakefield City Art Gallery
 
Worcester City Art Gallery