Todd Gray
7-34-08. 5.26.05 (Conjur Man), 2005

Archival pigment print, 21 x 16 inches
2/3 AP, signed, verso
Unframed
Courtesy of the artist
Estimated value: $8,000

This work is part of the "Shaman / Conjur Man" series. I used shaving foam as a way to mask and transform my identity. The shaving foam also questions majority culture, whiteness, conformity, and the pressure to integrate into American culture. The texts of Frantz Fannon, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, and bel hooks were major influences in forming this work.

About the Artist:
Todd Gray

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, and Whitney Biennial, New York; Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College, Claremont, CA; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT; Renaissance Society, University of Chicago; David Lewis, New York; Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco; National Portrait Gallery, London; Grand Palais, Paris; among others. His work is represented in numerous museum collections: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; among other institutions.

He was the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018 and of a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Residency, Italy, in 2016. Todd Gray’s photo-based work explores issues of 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 that link Western hegemony with West Africa.

Website: toddgrayla.com
Instagram: @toddgrayla