The Artist
B orn in Los Angeles, Todd Gray received both his BFA and MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. Gray’s photo-based work explores issues of black masculinity, diaspora, and contemporary and historical examinations of power. Working between Los Angeles and Ghana, where he explores the diasporic dislocations and cultural connections which link Western hegemony with West Africa, Gray has presented his work in academic conferences at Yale and Harvard University. His work is represented in numerous museum collections: Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; National Gallery of Canada; Studio Museum in Harlem; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles among others.
The Gallery
D avid Lewis is a contemporary art gallery located in Tribeca with an additional space in East Hampton. Founded in 2013 on the fifth floor of 88 Eldridge Street, the gallery spent eight years as a part of the Lower East Side community prior to relocating to Tribeca. From its inception, the gallery has featured rigorous exhibition programming, representing a combination of outstanding emerging artists at the beginnings of their careers as well as, more recently, significant historical artists and estates such as those of Mary Beth Edelson and Thornton Dial. The gallery has also established a reputation for discursively forward-thinking group exhibitions seeking to revise and challenge art historical narratives. Gallery artists are consistently included in exhibitions at and collections of important institutions worldwide, such the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. As well, artists have been included in international biennales such as the Venice Biennale and the Whitney Biennial.
The Cause
F
or his beneficiary, Todd Gray has chosen Sedabuda School.
Sedabuda School was founded in 2017 by Gray and his partner, artist Kyungmi Shin, near their property in Akwidaa, Ghana.
Regarding his choice of beneficiary, Gray writes;
“The school will provide an early education with hands-on creative activities at the core. Creative play will shape the form of the program for the two to five year old students. A large amount of individual attention will be emphasized with the teacher student ratio of 1:10 introducing art, English, and math. Using local materials and tradesmen with carpenter Yankee Kobina in the lead, the school broke ground 5 years ago. Construction progressed slowly, drop by drop. When we sold an artwork we’d send money to buy materials. The school is now about 70% complete.”
