Artist Todd Gray’s new solo exhibition, “Church and State,” currently on display at the Brick gallery in East Hollywood, offers a rare opportunity to experience the full scope of his career by bridging the divide between his commercial and fine art practices. At 72, Gray has long worked in two distinct realms: as a commercial photographer known for capturing iconic musicians such as the Rolling Stones, Bobby Brown, and Michael Jackson, and as a fine artist creating complex sculptural photographic collages that explore themes of power, colonialism, and identity.
The exhibition features over 100 album covers from Gray’s extensive commercial portfolio alongside several large-scale collages, including two new works and a nearly 30-foot piece titled “Sumptuous Memories of Plundering Kings” (2021), on view in Los Angeles for the first time. This monumental installation intertwines images of European imperial gardens with slave routes in Ghana, reflecting Gray’s ongoing engagement with the legacies of colonialism and the historical forces shaping racial and cultural identity. Gray and his wife, artist Kyungmi Shin, maintain a residence in Ghana, a place from which the artist draws inspiration.
Born in Los Angeles in 1954 to Chicago-born parents, Gray’s early life was steeped in music and visual culture. His father’s involvement in the music industry and his own experiences playing drums in high school bands fueled Gray’s early interest in music photography. Alongside his friend Neil Zlozower, Gray began photographing concerts as a teenager, a pursuit that led to early assignments for publications like Life and Creem and connections to musicians such as Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek. Encouraged by Manzarek, Gray enrolled at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), where he pursued both undergraduate and later graduate studies.
At CalArts in the 1970s and 1980s, Gray maintained a clear separation between his commercial work and his fine art, a division he likens to “church and state,” with the former seen as less prestigious. However, his master’s thesis marked a turning point, as he incorporated his commercial imagery—particularly photographs of Michael Jackson layered with handwritten texts from thinkers like Frantz Fanon—into critical explorations of race, identity, and cultural conformity. This blending of worlds challenged the conventional hierarchies of art and commerce.
Curator Hamza Walker, director of the Brick gallery, emphasizes that Gray’s work intertwines historical narratives with contemporary culture, reflecting on issues of power, submission, and resistance. Gray draws on a wide range of sources, from colonial artifacts and architecture of slave dungeons in Ghana to images of the cosmos provided by NASA, creating layered installations that upend traditional photographic conventions. By manipulating images—through digital distortion, inversion, and unusual framing—Gray disrupts normative perceptions and invites viewers to confront the intersections of cultural history, identity, and representation.
Recent highlights of Gray’s career include a prominent commission in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s David Geffen Galleries, featuring the large-scale collage “Octavia’s Gaze,” inspired by science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler, and a public art installation for the Los Angeles Metro’s Wilshire/La Cienega Station. These projects, along with his shows at galleries such as Perrotin, underscore the ongoing evolution and recognition of Gray’s work, which occupies a unique space where commercial imagery and critical fine art coexist and challenge established boundaries.