Todd Gray: Portals

Perrotin Los Angeles presents Portals, its first exhibition with Los Angeles-based artist Todd Gray (b. 1954), on view through May 30. Bringing together Gray’s signature photo sculptures, the exhibition is presented alongside the public unveiling of Octavia’s Gaze, his monumental commission for LACMA’s new David Geffen Galleries.

I have been thinking lately about photography. As a relative novice in the medium, contextualizing it has often been difficult for me. This is because we tend to treat photographs as evidence, as fixed records, as something that has happened. But that framing belongs to the past—where its major use was to catalog, classify, and ultimately determine ownership. Todd Gray recognizes this better than almost anyone. He has been making photographs since he was a kid, and somewhere along the way, he stopped treating the medium as a window and started treating it as a visceral sort of wound. Something open, raw, often confronting, and ultimately personal.

In his debut exhibition at Perrotin in Los Angeles, Portals, he layers images of formal gardens in conversation with Renaissance interiors and West African landscapes, where the material speaks to themes of colonial power and slavery. The images are tweaked, distorted, and, in a way, damaged to reflect the fragmentation of memory in all its vivid color. The philosopher Michelle M. Wright argues that Blackness is not a ‘what’ but instead a ‘when’ or ‘where’, and Gray seems to have built his visual language with this sentiment at its center. Recognizing that the tapestry of time and experience is what shapes an individual, rather than a mere single moment.  

Todd Gray, Paradox of Liberty (Monticello, Elmina, Akwidaa), 2026. Three UV pigment prints on Dibond in artist's frames — 140 x 94 x 6.7 cm / 55 1/8 x 37 1/8 x 2 5/8 in. Courtesy Perrotin © Todd Gray

Todd Gray, Portals (Antwerp, Paris), 2026. Three UV pigment prints on Dibond in artist's frames — 155.3 x 184.5 x 10.2 cm / 61 1/8 x 72 5/8 x 4 in. Courtesy Perrotin © Todd Gray

Todd Gray, Heart of Darkness in Eden’s Garden, 2026. Two UV pigment prints on Dibond in artist's frames — 107.6 x 155.3 x 5.7 cm / 42 3/8 x 61 1/8 x 2 1/4 in. Courtesy Perrotin © Todd Gray

Todd Gray, The Promise (Ghana, Rome, Gorée), 2026. Four UV pigment prints on Dibond in artist's frames — 109.5 x 290.8 x 5.4 cm / 43 1/8 x 114 1/2 x 2 1/8 in. Courtesy Perrotin © Todd Gray

Todd Gray, Past Imperfect (Promise of Amnesia), 2026. Two UV pigment prints on Dibond in artist's frames — 140 x 190.8 x 7.9 cm / 55 1/8 x 75 1/8 x 3 1/8 in. Courtesy Perrotin © Todd Gray

Todd Gray, Kind of Blue in a Silent Way #1, 2026. Three UV pigment prints on Dibond in artist’s frames — 134.9 x 211.8 x 10.2 cm / 53 1/8 x 83 3/8 x 4 in. Courtesy Perrotin © Todd Gray

Todd Gray, Into This Wild Abyss / The Womb of Nature, 2026. Five UV pigment prints on Dibond in artist's frames — 145.1 x 281.6 x 8.9 cm / 57 1/8 x 110 7/8 x 3 1/2 in. Courtesy Perrotin © Todd Gray

Todd Gray, Atlantic Blues (Sketch), 2026. Five archival pigment prints in artist's frames, UV laminate — 55.9 x 102.2 x 5.7 cm / 22 x 40 1/4 x 2 1/4 in. Courtesy Perrotin © Todd Gray

Todd Gray, Octavia’s Gaze (Study #1, LACMA), 2026. Twelve archival pigment prints in artist's frames, UV laminate — 73.7 x 314.6 x 8.6 cm / 29 x 123 7/8 x 3 3/8 in. Courtesy Perrotin © Todd Gray

 

 

A portal, as he frames it, is not a destination, rather a point of entry. Where a connection takes place between that which is recounted and that which is experienced. Where a non-linear thinking is required to gain a true understanding. For me, what hits hardest is the generosity and receptiveness found in Gray’s work. He refuses to point fingers. Instead, he chooses to make space, to fill it with truth and beauty in equal measure. Insisting that beauty and grief are parts of the same conversation, very little is found in isolation.

This show coincides with the unveiling of his monumental LACMA commission, Octavia’s Gaze for the David Geffen Galleries, which opened last month. The 27-foot photo-sculpture is, in a way, an ode to acclaimed author Octavia Gray, not just as a single person trapped in time, but as a representative of those who have gone before and those who are yet to arrive. Both presentations feel like watershed moments in Gray’s already illustrious career. Don’t miss them.

For more information, please consult Perrotin’s website here →

Last Updated on May 15, 2026