Work — TODD GRAY

While Angels Gaze

Lehmann Maupin is pleased to present While Angels Gaze, an exhibition of new work by Todd Gray. While Angels Gaze marks the gallery’s first New York exhibition with the artist and his first since joining Lehmann Maupin’s roster in 2023. Best known for his photo assemblages that feature subject matter ranging from imperial European gardens, to West African landscapes, to depictions of pop icons, to portraits of the artist himself, Gray builds critical juxtapositions in his work that examine accepted cultural beliefs—particularly around ideas of the African diaspora, colonialism, and societal power dynamics. In While Angels Gaze, Gray presents a suite of new pieces that combine images from his music photography archive, work made in the early 2000s, and photographs taken during his fellowship at the American Academy in Rome in 2023.

The exhibition opens on Thursday, January 23rd, with a reception with the artist to be held from 6:00–8:00 PM.

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Gorée Island, Villa Torlonia, 2024, Two UV pigment prints on Dibond, artist's frames, 40 × 60 × 2 inches

The Song Remains (assumptions about the nature of time), 2024, Two UV pigment prints on Dibond, artist's frames,
60 5/8 x 43 x 2 in, 154 x 109.2 x 5.1 cm

Blues Ship (makes me wanna holla), 2024, Three pigment ink prints on Dibond in artist’s frames, 41 x 61 1/8 x 2 3/4 in, 104.1 x 155.3 x 7 cm

Other Tellings (myth is the threshold of history, everything both exists and is imagined), 2024, Four UV pigment prints on Dibond, artist's frames, 50 × 142 × 2 inches

Assumptions about the nature of time, 2024, Three UV pigment prints on Dibond, artist's frames, 60 × 48 ×2 ¾ inches

Time Warp / other tellings, Galleri Opdahl, Stavanger, Norway.

Galleri Opdahl is honored to present Time Warp / other tellings, Todd Gray’s first solo exhibition in Norway. The exhibition features a new body of work, which will be shown in dialogue with pieces from the Rome Work series, made during his residency as a Rome Prize Fellow in 2022-2023.

On view April 26, 2024 - May 30th, 2024

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Time Warp (Chuck), 2024, archival pigment prints in artist frames, UV laminate, 51 x 38 x 3in, 129.5 x 96.5 x 7.6cm

Triple Play, 2023, archival pigment prints in artist frames, UV laminate, 43 x 69 x 2in, 109.2 x 175.2 x 5.1cm

On Point

Lehmann Maupin presents, On Point, the gallery’s first exhibition with Todd Gray, and the artist’s first in London. Working between Los Angeles and Akwidaa, Ghana, Gray’s photo-based work aims to destabilize assumptions about the veracity of photography and provoke reconsiderations of long-accepted norms and beliefs about the medium. 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.

On Point is on view March 14 - May 6, 2023.

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Green Green, 2023, archival pigment prints in artist frames, UV laminate, 58 x 90 in, 147.3 x 228.6 cm

On Pointe, Plato’s Cave, 2023, three archival pigment prints in artist frame, UV laminate, 44 x 35 in, 111.8 x 88.9 cm

Installation view, On Point, Lehmann Maupin, London, England

Installation view, On Point, Lehmann Maupin, London, England

Rome Work, Vielmetter, Los Angeles

Vielmetter Los Angeles is pleased to announce Todd Gray’s solo exhibition Rome Work, featuring Gray’s photographic works based on his recent six-month residency as a 2022-23 Rome Prize Fellow

On view November 18, 2023 - January 18, 2024

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Atlantic Series

Todd Gray
Atlantic lullabies, Other tellings
David Lewis
53 the Circle, East Hampton NY
August 12-28, 2022

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David Lewis is pleased to present Todd Gray, Atlantic lullabies, Other tellings. It is the artist’s third exhibition with the gallery, and his first solo exhibition at David Lewis’s East Hampton location. Expanding his work from his previous solo exhibition with the gallery, the hidden order of the whole, this new series on and about the Atlantic Ocean, offers viewers entries to the past while recounting other tellings.

“The past -- or more accurately, pastness -- is a position. Thus, in no way can we identify the past as past." (Trouillot 1997, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (1995))

– Silvi Naçi

Atlantic (trail of Tears), 2022, Four archival pigment prints with UV laminate in artist's frames, 72 5/8 x 49 1/8 x 4 1/2 in

Installation view, Atlantic lullabies, Other tellings, David Lewis, East Hampton NY

Atlantic (Double Dutch), 2022, Four archival pigment prints with UV laminate in artist's frames, 72 5/8 x 49 1/8 x 5 in

Atlantic (Octavia), 2022, Four archival pigment prints with UV laminate in artist's frames, 72 5/8 x 49 1/8 x 5 in

Installation view, Atlantic lullabies, Other tellings, David Lewis, East Hampton NY

Atlantic (Keisha’s Redemption Song), 2022, Five archival pigment prints with UV laminate in artist's frames, 72 5/8 x 49 1/8 x 5 3/4 in

Installation view, Atlantic lullabies, Other tellings, David Lewis, East Hampton NY

Atlantic (Eyo), 2022, Four archival pigment prints with UV laminate in artist's frames, 72 5/8 x 49 1/8 x 4 1/4 in

Atlantic (Jesuits), 2022, Four archival pigment prints with UV laminate in artist's frames, 72 5/8 x 49 1/8 x 5 in

Atlantic (Barry and Glodean), 2022, Four archival pigment prints with UV laminate in artist's frames, 72 1/2 x 49 1/8 x 5 1/4 in

Atlantic (falling), 2022, Four archival pigment prints with UV laminate in artist's frames, 72 1/2 x 49 1/8 x 4 1/2 in

Atlantic (the Dancer), 2022, Four archival pigment prints with UV laminate in artist's frames, 72 1/2 x 49 1/8 x 4 1/2 in

Atlantic (Mapping Time), 2022, Four archival pigment prints with UV laminate in artist's frames, 72 1/2 x 49 1/8 x 5 in

Atlantic (Tiepolo), 2022, Four archival pigment prints with UV laminate in artist's frames, 72 5/8 x 49 1/8 x 5 in

the hidden order of the whole

Todd Gray
September 9 — October 30, 2021
David Lewis
57 Walker Street, New York

The title of the exhibition—also the title of each individual work in the exhibition—is drawn from a passage by French-Caribbean theorist Édouard Glissant:

The position of each part within this whole: that is, the acknowledged validity of each specific Plantation yet at the same time the urgent need to understand the hidden order of the whole—so as to wander there without getting lost.

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the hidden order of the whole (jim), 2021, Five archival pigment prints in artist's frames, UV laminate, 60 3/4 x 181 1/8 x 2 3/4 in

Installation view, the hidden order of the whole, David Lewis, New York

the hidden order of the whole (atlantic), 2021, Four archival pigment prints in artist's frames, UV laminate, 72 1/2 x 49 1/8 x 4 1/2 in

Installation view, the hidden order of the whole, David Lewis, New York

MATRIX 186

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

On view March 4 – July 18, 2021

For his MATRIX project, Gray embraces the experimental nature of MATRIX program to expand his practice with his most ambitious work to date: a fourteen-part work exceeding thirty feet in length. The scale and imagery will envelop the viewer in a historical, cultural, and spiritual experience that directly connects with the renewed contemporary discourse to face past and present transgressions. Four recent multi-part works will accompany the monumental work in Gray’s MATRIX project.

The Nature of Reality According to Todd Gray, Exhibition essay by Patricia Hickson, Emily Hall Tremaine Curator of Contemporary Art.

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PUBLIC PROGRAMS

March 8 | Artist Talk: Todd Gray / MATRIX 186

May 12 | Panel Discussion: Todd Gray: Euclidian Gris Gris

Art Basel Miami 2019

David Lewis Gallery
Nova, Booth N11
Miami Beach Convention Center, Miami Beach, FL
December 05—08, 2019

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

Art Basel Miami Beach Nova, David Lewis, Booth N11, Miami Beach Convention Center, Miami Beach, FL, December 05—08, 2019

Euclidean Gris Gris (The Young Shall Inherit the Earth), 2019, Three archival pigment prints in artist's frames and found frames, UV laminate, 30 3/4 x 40 3/4 x 3 in

Euclidean Gris Gris (Tropic of Entropy), 2019, Four archival pigment prints in artist's frames and found frames, UV laminate, 72 x 87 x 3 in

Euclidean Gris Gris

Pomona College Museum of Art
September 03, 2019—May 17, 2020
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The exhibition project “Todd Gray: Euclidean Gris Gris” activates the Pomona College Museum of Art’s largest gallery throughout the 2019/2020 academic year and consists of a site-specific wall drawing and an evolving selection of photographs from Gray’s ongoing artistic examination of the legacies of colonialism in Africa and Europe. A series of monthly programs, Longing on a Large Scale, and a publication accompany the exhibition.

The exhibition is curated by Rebecca McGrew with Hannah Grossman and is accompanied by a publication designed by Kimberly Varella of Content Object.

Exhibition supported by Andy Warhol Foundation and Mike Kelley Foundation For the Arts.

Installation II, November 12, 2019 - May 17, 2020

Parisian Hoods in Bamboo Village, 2019, Two archival pigment prints in artist's frames, 45 x 57 x 2 in

Installation II, November 12, 2019 - May 17, 2020

Todd Gray, Euclidean Gris Gris, Pomona College, Museum of Art

Kenturah, 2019, Two archival pigment prints in artist's frames, 25 x 41 x 1.5 in

Installation I, November 12, 2019 - May 17, 2020

Euclidean Gris Gris (Paris/Cape Town), 2019, Two archival pigment prints in artist's frames, 60 3/8 x 89 1/2 x 2 1/2 in

Installation II, September 3 - November, 10, 2019

Euclidean Gris Gris (Love and Happiness), 2019, Two archival pigment prints in artist's frames, 37 7/8 x 47 3/4 x 2 3/4 in

Euclidean Gris Gris (Ship of Fools), 2019, Two archival pigment prints in artist's frames, 60 x 81 3/4 x 2 1/2 in

Installation II, November 12, 2019 - May 17, 2020

Euclidean Gris Gris (Tropic of Entropy), 2019, Four archival pigment prints in artist's frames, 73 3/4 x 90 x 4 1/2 in

Euclidean Gris Gris (The Young Shall Inherit the Earth), 2019, Three archival pigment prints in artist's frames, 30 3/4 x 30 5/8 x 3 1/4 in

Installation I, September 3 - November, 10, 2019

Euclidean Gris Gris (Francis), 2019, Three archival pigment prints in artist's frames, 49 5/8 x 37 5/8 x 1 3/4 in

Installation II, November 12, 2019 - May 17, 2020

Euclidean Gris Gris (Gifty/Versailles), 2019, three archival pigment prints in artist’s frames, 48 5/8 x 41 x 3 5/8 in. Pomona College Collection

Whitney Biennial 2019

May 17–Oct 27, 2019

The 2019 Whitney Biennial is organized by Jane Panetta and Rujeko Hockley, with Ramsay Kolber.

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Installation view, “Whitney Biennial 2019,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, 2019

Slipping into Darkness, all the Honey Gone, 2018, Three archival pigment prints in artist's frames and found frames with UV laminate, 51 1/2 x 60 1/2 x 4 1/2 in

Installation view, “Whitney Biennial 2019,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, 2019

Euclidian Gris Gris (2), 2018, Four archival pigment prints in artist's frames and found frames, 74 x 47.5 x 5.5 in

Pax 3, 2018, Three archival pigment prints in artist's frames and found frames, 48 3/4 × 38 1/2 × 3 1/2 in

Cartesian Gris Gris

David Lewis, New York
April 30—June 30, 2019
Press Release
Press
Artist Talk: Todd Gray in Conversation with Mabel O. Wilson

In Stuart Hall’s 1996 essay “Cultural identity and diaspora,” Hall quotes Franz Fanon’s description of how the colonial subject, the subject of the diaspora, is formed by the gaze of the colonizer: The movements, the attitudes, the glances of the other fixed me there, in the sense in which a chemical solution is fixed by a dye. I was indignant; I demanded an explanation. Nothing happened. I burst apart. Now the fragments have been put together again by another self.

Installation view, Cartesian Gris Gris, David Lewis, New York

Palm House Blues, 2019, Three archival pigment prints in artist's frames and found frames, UV laminate, 47 1/4 x 60 x 3 3/4 in

Installation view, Cartesian Gris Gris, David Lewis, New York

Coretta, 2019, Two archival pigment prints in artist's frames and found frames, UV laminate, 51 1/2 x 67 x 3 1/2 in

Installation view, Cartesian Gris Gris, David Lewis, New York

Euclidian Gris Gris (3), 2019, Three archival pigment prints in artist's frames and found frames, 58 1/4 x 69 1/4 x 4 1/4 in

Installation view, Cartesian Gris Gris, David Lewis, New York

Cartesian Gris Gris (Stairways), 2019, Three archival pigment prints in artist's frames and found frames, UV laminate, 47 x 58 1/4 x 3 1/2 in

Cartesian Gris Gris (Water), 2019, Two archival pigment prints in artist's frames, UV laminate, 58 3/4 x 66 x 3 in

Installation view, Cartesian Gris Gris, David Lewis, New York

Hoods in the Garden, 2019, Two archival pigment prints in artist's frames and found frames, UV laminate, 51 3/4 x 25 x 2 1/4 in

Euclidean Gris Gris Francis, 2019, Three archival pigment prints in artist's frames and found frames, UV laminate 49 5/8 × 375/8 × 13/4 in

Installation view, Cartesian Gris Gris, David Lewis, New York

Onisimo | Leopold, 2019, Three archival pigment prints in artist's frames and found frames, UV laminate, 39 1/4 x 56 x 3 in

Installation view, Cartesian Gris Gris, David Lewis, New York

The Haunted House of Olympia (Francis), 2019, Four archival pigment prints in artist's frames and found frames, UV laminate 66 3/8 x 54 3/4 x 5 in

Akwidaa | Luxembourg, 2019, Two archival pigment prints in artist's frames and found frames, UV laminate, 34 x 26 x 2 in

Portraits

Meliksetian Briggs, Los Angeles, CA
June 15—September 15, 2018

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For this exhibition, Gray extends the visual language of his ongoing Exquisite Terribleness series, characterized by images Gray made while working for Michael Jackson as his exclusive photographer in the 1980s, offering complex representations of blackness, the African diaspora and the African landscape itself. Several of his new works include images taken during Gray’s recent stay in Italy as part of a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Residency. Portraits of other residency participants, writers and leaders among them, are juxtaposed with landscapes of the wilderness in South Africa and the manicured gardens of the estate in Italy as a counterpoint, provoking a critical visual dialogue.

Portraits, 2018, Installation view at 313 N. Fairfax Avenue

Samita, 2018, three archival pigment prints with found and artist’s frames and UV laminate, 39 x 46 x 3.5 in

Portraits, 2018, Installation view at 313 N. Fairfax Avenue

Flora Africanus (D.C.) 2018, Two archival pigment prints in found frames and artist's frames and UV laminate, 31 1/4 x 40 x 2 in

Portraits, 2018, Installation view at 313 N. Fairfax Avenue

Purnima, 2018, three archival pigment prints in found frames and artist's frames and UV laminate, 55 x 48 x 3.5 in

Portraits, 2018, Installation view at 313 N. Fairfax Avenue

Akwidaa: Phase Patterns, Unit Structures, 2018, four archival pigments prints in artist's frames and found frames with UV laminate, 52 1/2 x 38 1/2 x 5 in

Portraits, 2018, Installation view at 313 N. Fairfax Avenue

Exquisite Terribleness

Samsøñ
Caliban in the Mirror: Exquisite Terribleness
May 1 - June 13, 2015
Boston Globe Review

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Meliksetian | Briggs
Exquisite Terribleness
September 11 – October 18, 2014

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Atlanta by Boat, 2015, two archival pigment prints with artist’s frames, 43x5 x 61.5 x 2.5 in

Installation view, Caliban in the Mirror: Exquisite Terribleness, Samsøñ, Boston, MA

Mirror Mirror, 2014, two archival pigment print with found antique frames, 29.5 x 23.5 x 2 in

Three Women, 2015, archival pigment prints found antique frames, wood, 44 x 30 x 2 in

Installation view, Caliban in the Mirror: Exquisite Terribleness, Samsøñ, Boston, MA

Installation view, Caliban in the Mirror: Exquisite Terribleness, Samsøñ, Boston, MA

Installation view, Caliban in the Mirror: Exquisite Terribleness, Samsøñ, Boston, MA

Installation view, Exquisite Terribleness, Meliksetian & Briggs, Los Angeles, CA

Installation view, Exquisite Terribleness, Meliksetian & Briggs, Los Angeles, CA

Installation view, Exquisite Terribleness, Meliksetian & Briggs, Los Angeles, CA

Installation view, Exquisite Terribleness, Meliksetian & Briggs, Los Angeles, CA

Installation view, Exquisite Terribleness, Meliksetian & Briggs, Los Angeles, CA

Conjur Man

Immaculate
20 November 2004 – 29 January 2005
Luckman Gallery, Cal State L.A.

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Todd Gray: Immaculate will be accompanied by a 56-page, color-illustrated exhibition catalog. Texts include an interview between the artist and internationally recognized artist, Carrie Mae Weems; an essay by independent writer and curator, Malik Gaines; and an essay by Julie Joyce, exhibition curator and Gallery Director of the Luckman Fine Arts Complex.

Conjur Man, 2011, archival pigment print 28.5 x 40 in

Conjur Man 1.3, 2012, archival pigment print 28.5 x 40 in

Conjur Man 1.2, 2011, archival pigment print, 40 x 28.5

Beauty Boar, 2004, archival pigment print, boar’s head 68 x 44 x 16 in

Shaman 10, 2005, archival pigment print and acrylic, 17 x 13 in

Shaman 3.8, 2005, archival pigment print and acrylic, 13 x 10 in

Shaman Horse, 2004, archival pigment print, 34 x 28 in

Shaman 4, 2005, archival pigment print 13 x 10 in

Time machine | Hippie Dandy

Meliksetian | Briggs
June 10 – August 13, 2016

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Time Machine / Hippie Dandy, a solo exhibition of new work by artist Todd Gray features photo based work, painting and ephemera complimenting his social sculpture / performance piece Ray running concurrently and for the duration of the Made in LA biennial at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.

Installation view, Time Machine / Hippie Dandy, Meliksetian | Briggs

Time Machine No. 4, 2016, four archival pigment prints with found and artists frames, 38 1/2 x 2 1/2 in depth

Time Machine No. 5, 2016, four archival pigment prints with found and artist’s frames, 37 ¾ x 33 ¼ in

Time Machine No. 3, 2016, three archival pigment prints with artist’s frames, 38 1/2 x 2 1/2 in depth

Time Machine No. 1, 2016, two archival pigment prints with artist’s frames, 38 1/2 x 2 in depth

Time Machine No. 2, 2016, three archival pigment prints with artist’s frames, 38 1/2 x 2 1/2 in depth

Installation view, Time Machine / Hippie Dandy, Meliksetian | Briggs

Installation view, Time Machine / Hippie Dandy, Meliksetian | Briggs

Installation view, Time Machine / Hippie Dandy, Meliksetian | Briggs

Installation view, Time Machine / Hippie Dandy, Meliksetian | Briggs

My Life in the Bush with MJ & Iggy

Museum of the African Diaspora
April 26, 2017 - August 27, 2017

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Museum of the African Diaspora is pleased to present Todd Gray: My Life in the Bush with MJ and Iggy. Stemming from the archival images of Gray’s time as Michael Jackson’s personal photographer through the 1980s and his experience living and documenting rock & roll in Los Angeles, these works problematize images and demonstrate the ways in which we highlight and obfuscate black cultural roots in our collective social memory.