CODA GALLERY PRESENTS
POP SCULPTURE BY TODD GRAY

EXHIBITION: APRIL 5-26
OPENING RECEPTION: APRIL 5, 5-8 P.M.

PALM DESERT, CA — CODA Gallery presents a new exhibition of sculpture by Todd Gray, running April 5-26. An opening reception, attended by the artist, will be held 5-8 p.m. on April 5 in conjunction with El Paseo Art Walk/Palm Desert First Weekend.

When Todd Gray was a child, his mother had him fill out a book that asked him to name his favorite book, food, etc. At the age of 6, he wrote down that his favorite color was “psychedelic.”

Todd points out that he was born in the heyday of the bright and bold visuals of pop and op art — and that aesthetic stuck with him.

If he meets someone at a party, he simply describes himself as “a contemporary pop artist who works three dimensionally.” But his sculptural assemblages of painted-wood boxes delve into the legacies of iconic artists from the 1960s. He combines Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s soup cans and Brillo pad boxes, Roy Lichtenstein’s comic-book graphics, Robert Indiana’s numbers, polka dots, stripes, and splats with today’s social-media culture of happy-face emojis and hashtags.

Todd, who has lived in Los Angeles most of his life, earned a degree in clinical psychology from UCLA and then traveled for a year.

“When I got back, I realized I didn’t want to listen to people’s problems for the rest of my life,” he says. “I did a lot of soul searching and decided to devote myself to something I enjoy. I concluded that being an artist was going to be my identity.

“I started painting on canvas,” he continues. “My work was very colorful, very opaque, and visually three-dimensional. I remember saying that one day my work would come off the canvas; and in no time at all, I started painting cubes for geometric sculptures.”

Whether he is making a wall sculpture, a tower, or a coffee table, Todd starts with the form, stacking boxes until he has something “balanced and pleasing to the eye.” At times, he draws upon a list of ideas he wants to pursue and makes the concept (e.g., Wonder Woman) fit the form.

“Fortunately, what I do has a broad range. I can make a small pedestal or a tower, build furniture or a playground.” His smallest pieces fit on tables; the largest (with some 50 boxes) measures 12 feet wide. All are made with half-inch birch plywood.

Todd says the best compliment is “for somebody to say my work is really smart.”

In 2018, Todd Gray completed an important outdoor mural at the World Trade Center in New York City.