The artist's lush photo assemblages are composed of images ranging from imperial European gardens, Baroque architecture, and Ghanian landscapes, to rock icons, seascapes, 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.
Often rendered on an immersive scale - with the largest to date spanning over 30 feet- Gray's entrancing photo sculptures are infused with a cerain subversive beauty, reflecting his strong sense of visual aesthetics.
About the artist
Todd Gray (b. 1954, Los Angeles, CA). An artist that works in photography, performance and sculpture. Gray's work is represented in numerous museum collections including the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Houston Fine Arts Museum, Houston, TX; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; among others.
He was the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018 and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Residency Fellowship in 2016. In 2022 The American Academy in Rome announced Todd Gray as one of the winners of the prestigious 2022–23 Rome Prize and Italian Fellowships.
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.
