Euclidean Gris Gris features a selection of recent photographic works derived from Todd Gray’s exploration of the legacies of colonialism in Africa and several other seminal works. This is part of the ongoing artistic examination of the legacies of colonialism in Africa and Europe.
 
Gray explores the historical constructs of the “logical” and geometrical gardens of Europe—an aesthetic manifestation of the idea of disembodied reason—with the “sublime” nature found in African landscapes.
He combines contrasting language within a broader cultural critique: photographs from the artist’s archive, which he has assembled over decades, his pictures of individuals and rural scenes in South Africa and Ghana, formal gardens of imperial Europe, constellations and galaxies, and images of musicians, such as Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder.

Todd Gray references the Euclidean—Western influences—and Gris Gris—African animism and poetics.

Published on the occasion of the 2019/2020 exhibition at the Pomona College Museum of Art