Sunday, May 17, 2026 at 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
LACMA, Los Angeles
Hear from artist Todd Gray at this rare inside look at the vision behind some of L.A.’s most engaging contemporary art projects. Gray will be in conversation with scholar and curator Dr. Tiffany E. Barber about his newly commissioned work for LACMA, *Octavia’s Gaze*, as well as his public art projects across Los Angeles, including a new Metro Art commission for Wilshire/La Cienega station, exploring the artist's inspirations, creative process, and approach to making art for both museums and public spaces. Co-presented with Metro Art. Attendees are encouraged to [GO METRO](https://www.metro.net/riding/trip-planner/) to the event. **Todd Gray** works in photography, performance and sculpture. He received both his BFA and MFA from California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and 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. He was the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018 and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Residency Fellowship in 2016, among others. Gray’s work is in numerous public collections including in the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. **Dr. Tiffany E. Barber** is an award-winning scholar, curator, and critic whose work reshapes how we understand race, gender, and representation. Her expert commentary spans academic journals, museum exhibitions, acclaimed documentaries, and major media outlets like *The Nation*, *Huffington Post*, *Frieze*, and *Tate Etc*. Currently Assistant Professor of African American Art at UCLA, Dr. Barber’s unique blend of art history, performance theory, and Black feminist thought inspires diverse audiences and institutions to advance new cultural futures. Her path-breaking exhibitions have been featured in *Essence*, *The Brooklyn Rail*, *Surface Magazine*, and Google Arts & Culture. Her debut monograph, *Undesirability and Her Sisters: Black Women’s Visual Work and the Ethics of Representation* (NYU Press, 2025), cements her reputation as a leading tastemaker and thinker of this generation.