User:Aerickson3967/sandbox

Todd Gray (born 1954) works in photography, performance and sculpture as a contemporary artist who lives and works in Los Angeles and Ghana.

Writing in the catalogue for the exhibition Black is, Black Ain't at the Renaissance Society, Chicago, Amy M. Mooney writes "critics have noted that Gray's work is "fluent in cultural iconography, driven by introspection, and steeped in issues of corporate politics and racial identity" and that his self-portraits thwart a traditional read of the exterior likeness". Gray describes himself as an artist and activist who primarily focuses on issues of race, class, gender, and colonialism, and uses these lenses to challenge binaries in the past and present '''. In general, his work aims to challenge the viewer both by what he is including and what he is leaving out .'''

Early life and education
Gray born was born in 1954 in Los Angeles, California. He got his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), Valencia, California in 1979 and his Master of Fine Arts from CalArts in 1989.

Early career
Gray first got into photography during high school while taking a photography class. Beginning in the early 1970s while he was still in high school, Gray worked as a commercial photographer in the music industry, photographing rock and R&B acts such as the Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder and Gladys Knight. Gray shot his first album cover at age 17. He continued to do so throughout the 1970s, allowing him to pay for college and then art school. To date, Gray has shot over 100 album covers.

Later/Current career
After graduating with his BFA from CalArts, Gray was asked by Michael Jackson to become his personal photographer, which he did in the period 1979–1983, during the time of Jackson's landmark albums Off the Wall and Thriller. '''Gray's work became greatly influenced by Michael Jackson's exploration of race and gender, and to this day uses photographs of Jackson in his art. His work is often comprised of multilayered frames with photographs of only parts of Jackson shown, such as a hand or his jacket, adding to the notion of Jackson as a superior metaphysical being. These images are accompanied by more recent photographs of nature or interiors, many of which he shoots in Ghana. '''

Exhibitions
Gray has exhibited work at Meliksetain Briggs Gallery, Los Angeles ; the Luckman Gallery at California State University ; the Whitney Museum of American Art; among many others. In his 2017 exhibition at the Museum of the African Diaspora, Gray explored Michael Jackson in terms of "mental colonialism." In 2019 Gray was selected to be '''on display at the Pomona College Museum of Art, which features his piece, "Euclidean Gris Gris," among others. His exhibition will stay up until May 17th, 2020.  Another exhibition in 2016 was a part of the Hammer museum in Los Angelos, but took place outside the confines of the museum itself. Gray wore the clothes of Ray Manzarek, who was one of the founding members of the Doors, and also a friend of Gray's; for a year. In order to see the "exhibition," one had to happen upon Gray himself during the months the exhibition was taking place.'''

Collections
Gray's work is held in the following permanent public collections: the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), San Francisco, CA, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles CA, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, CA, the University of Connecticut, Hartford, CT, the California Community Foundation, Los Angeles, CA, and the University of Parma, Parma, Italy. In 2019, Gray was featured as an artist in the Whitney Museum of American Art's 2019 Biennial.