Todd Gray (b. 1954, Los Angeles, CA, lives and works in Los Angeles, CA and Akwidaa, Ghana) is a photo-based artist whose work aims to destabilize assumptions about the veracity of photography and provoke reconsiderations of long-accepted norms and beliefs surrounding the medium, including the role of the viewer in constructing meaning. His lush photo assemblages are composed of images ranging from imperial European gardens, West African landscapes, and architecture, to rock icons and portraits of the artist himself, all carefully arranged to create critical juxtapositions that examine ideas of African diaspora, colonialism, societal power structures, and dominant cultural beliefs. With an eye informed by his four decades as a professional music photographer as well as his B.F.A. and M.F.A. from California Institute of the Arts, Gray's photo sculptures are infused with a certain subversive beauty, reflecting his strong sense of visual aesthetics.
Read MoreGray's distinctive photo collages range in size from the domestic to the monumental, with his largest to date spanning over 30 feet. The artist utilises found frames in many of his works—from simple wood to ornate, rococo pieces—often sourced from flea markets or estate sales. Gray stacks these frames on top of one another, deliberately obscuring certain elements of his photographs and striking a delicate balance between revealing and concealing his subject matter. Images are rotated, cropped, and subtly abstracted, even as they remain firmly representational. All of the photographs (with the exception of those from the Hubble telescope) are sourced directly from Gray's own catalog in a process the artist refers to as 'appropriating his own archive.' As the creator of now iconic imagery of cultural figures such as Michael Jackson, Iggy Pop, and the Rolling Stones, the artist navigates an area between the appropriation of the Pictures Generation and Pop Art's acknowledgement of popular imagery and commerce as drivers of so-called high culture. Across his collages, Gray weaves historical imagery into pictures of the present, reminding us that the realities of our world today are shaped by those of our collective past.
Gray received both his B.F.A and M.F.A from California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA in 1979 and 1989, respectively. Solo exhibitions of his work have been organized at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI (2021); Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT (2021); David Lewis, New York, NY (2021); Pomona College Museum of Art, Pomona, CA (2019); Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA (2018); Meliksetian | Briggs, Los Angeles, CA (2018); Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA (2017); Gallery Momo, Johannesburg, South Africa (2017); Lightwork, Syracuse, NY (2016); Samson Projects, Boston, MA (2015); California State University, Los Angeles, CA (2004); Pasadena City College, CA (2003); and Cal Poly Pomona, State University, Pomona, CA (2002). Select group exhibitions of his work include NGV Triennial, National Gallery of Victoria (NGA), Melbourne, Australia (2023); Inheritance, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (2023); Afro-Atlantic Histories, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA (2022);Claiming the Narrative, Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, NJ (2022); Black American Portraits, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA (2021); Photo Flux: Unshuttering LA, The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center, CA (2021); TELL ME YOUR STORY: Storytelling in African American Art, From the Harlem Renaissance to the Present, Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, the Netherlands (2020); Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (2019); Mapping Black Identities, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (2019); A Brilliant Spectrum: Recent Gifts of Color Photography, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA (2019); Michael Jackson: On the Wall, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK; Paris, France; Bonn, Germany; and Espoo, Finland (2018); a, the, though, only, Made in LA 2016, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2016); Go Tell It on the Mountain, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2013); The Bearden Project, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY (2011); Black Is Black Ain't, Detroit Museum of Art, Detroit, MI (2009); Oz, New Offerings From Los Angeles, Instituto Cultural Cabaña, Guadalajara, Mexico (2009); Black Is Black Ain't, Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL (2008); Framing the Triangle, Goethe Institute, Accra, Ghana (2005); and Committed to the Image, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, NY (2001).
Gray's work is held in numerous public and private collections, including the Benton Museum of Art, Pomona College, Claremont, CA California Community Foundation, Los Angeles, CA; Getty Center, Los Angeles, CA; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA; Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, CA; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN; Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, CA; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA; Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; University of Connecticut, Hartford, CT; University of Parma, Parma, Italy; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.
He is the recipient of several awards and fellowships, including the Rome Prize Fellowship, Visual Arts, American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy (2022-23); John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for Fine Arts (2018); Bellagio Creative Arts Fellowship, The Rockefeller Foundation (2016); and the Hermitage Artist Retreat Fellowship, Englewood, FL (2015). In 2007, Gray was commissioned to create a public artwork for the Los Angeles International Airport.
Text courtesy Lehmann Maupin.
