“What we all have available is that moment of recognition that the work is singing. It doesn’t matter how much validation, peer validation, institutional validation I get. Nothing is equal to the high that I get in the studio.”
Artists and Rights, Episode 1: Living a Life While Decolonizing the Mind
Artists and Rights, Episode 2: Superpowers and Guiding Principles: Defining What You Want
Born in Los Angeles, Todd Gray received both his BFA and MFA from California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). Solo and group exhibitions include the Studio Museum, Harlem, NY; Whitney Biennial, NY; Pomona College Museum of Art, Claremont; USC Fisher Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Renaissance Society, University of Chicago; David Lewis, NY; Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco; National Portrait Gallery, London; Grand Palais, Paris among others. Performance works have been presented at institutions such as the Roy & Edna Disney CalArts Theater (REDCAT) and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. His work is represented in numerous museum collections: Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; National Gallery of Canada; Studio Museum in Harlem; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles among others. He was the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2019, and of a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Residency, Italy in 2016. Todd Gray’s photo based work explores issues of black masculinity, diaspora, and contemporary/historical examinations of power. Gray has presented this work in academic conferences at Yale and Harvard University. Gray works between Los Angeles and Ghana, where he explores the diasporic dislocations and cultural connections which link Western hegemony with West Africa.
You can also find Todd Gray here:
Euclidean Gris Gris: Todd Gray at Pomona College Museum of Art Exhibition
Contemporary Art Review LA podcast
Non-profit Light Work produced this video and this podcast
Selected Works
Todd Gray, Gang Star, 2016. Archival pigment prints, artist’s frames, found antique frames, 47.5 x 39 x 2 in.
Todd Gray, Purnima, 2018. Three archival pigment prints in found frames and artist’s frames and UV laminate. 55 x 48 x 3.5 in.
Todd Gray, Cosmic Blues (Makes Me Wanna Holler), 2019. Four archival pigment prints in artist’s frames, UV laminate. 60 1/4 x 84 1/4 x 4 1/2 in.
Todd Gray, Flora Africanus, 2018. Two archival pigment prints in found frames and artist’s frames and UV laminate. 31 x 40 x 2 in.