The Fall 2024 Graduate Art guest lecture series, organized by Kelly Akashi

Todd Gray

This event is free & open to the public. RSVP’s are not required.

See the full Fall 2024 Seminar schedule here.

Todd Gray works in photography, performance and sculpture. He received both his BFA and MFA from California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). Gray is a professor emeritus of art at California State University, Long Beach. Gray works between Los Angeles and Ghana, where he explores the diasporic dislocations and cultural connections which link Western hegemony with West Africa. His photo-based 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.

Select group exhibitions of his work include Whitney Biennial (2019); 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); 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)He was the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018, a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Residency Fellowship in 2016, The American Academy in Rome (AAR) in 2022-23, among others. Gray’s work is in numerous public collections: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; National Gallery of Art, Washington DC; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles;  Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; National Gallery of Victoria (NGA), Melbourne, Australia and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, and others.

Image credit: courtesy of the artist.

Support for this series is generously provided by the following: Jack Shear, Brenda R. Potter, Brendan Dugan, Lisson Gallery, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Sprüth Magers, BLUM, Alan Hergott, and David Kordansky.

ArtCenter’s Graduate Seminar lecture series is a forum for graduate students, members of the ArtCenter community and the general public to enter into dialogue with internationally recognized artists, critics, and art historians. Unless otherwise indicated, lectures are free, open to the public and take place most Tuesday evenings at 7:00 pm in the L.A. Times Auditorium. Check out the Graduate Art website to confirm dates, times and locations for the lecture series and for more information about the Graduate Art program.

ArtCenter's Graduate Art program is based on intensive studio practice and rigorous academic coursework. The program is distinguished by its low faculty-to-student ratio, which provides students with the attention and feedback they need to refine and achieve their artistic goals. Faculty and students are artists working in all genres of film, video, photography, painting, sculpture, performance and installation. A significant number of alumni have achieved national and international acclaim and often return to share their insights and expertise as visiting faculty and guest lecturers.