What Is Todd Gray’s Church and State at The Brick?

Short answer

Todd Gray: Church and State is on view at The Brick, 518 North Western Avenue in East Hollywood, through January 16, 2027. The exhibition brings together, for the first time, Gray’s two careers: the photographic assemblages he is known for and the commercial music photography of his youth, when he was Michael Jackson’s personal photographer.

Key facts

• Who: Todd Gray (b. 1954, Los Angeles), a photographer, performer and sculptor whose work is held by the Getty, the Whitney, LACMA, MOCA and the Studio Museum in Harlem.
• What: Church and State — three photographic assemblages, two of them new mural-scale works, plus biographical images and ephemera from Gray’s life.
• Where: The Brick, 518 N. Western Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90004.
• When: October 18, 2026 – January 16, 2027.
• Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 11 AM to 6 PM; closed Sunday and Monday. Free and open to the public.

What will you see?

Three large photographic assemblages, two of them new mural-scale works. Gray mixes images of historic European sites of wealth and splendor — palaces, museums, churches — with locales tied to the slave trade along the West Coast of Africa, interspersed with photographs of African American cultural icons drawn from his own archive. The results read as tone poems on African American identity and on a Western civilization undergirded by colonialism.

Around them, the exhibition shows a significant collection of biographical material: images and ephemera documenting Gray’s life as a young Black man coming of age in postwar Los Angeles, and as a working commercial photographer. It is the first time these two bodies of work — kept separate for many years — are presented together.

Who is Todd Gray?

At sixteen, Gray attended Hamilton High School by day and photographed the Los Angeles rock scene by night — the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Cannonball Adderley, the Doors — with his friend and business partner Neil Zlozower. He went on to shoot iconic album covers for Gladys Knight, Cheryl Lynn and Bobby Brown, publish spreads in Italian Vogue, and serve as Michael Jackson’s personal photographer. In parallel he built a fine-art practice at CalArts, studying with Allan Kaprow and Allan Sekula alongside classmates including Mike Kelley and Carrie Mae Weems. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018 and the Rome Prize in 2022, and works between Los Angeles and Ghana.

Why see it now?

Church and State is organized by The Brick’s director Hamza Walker — who included Gray in the 2016 Made in LA biennial — with Hannah Burstein and Storm Bookhard, and a publication with a long-form interview between Gray and Walker is forthcoming. The Brick itself is the new name and new home of LAXART, the nonprofit space founded in 2005: an artist-centered, nonprofit art space where admission stays free. Watching an artist reconcile two separated lives in public is close to what we call cultural mediation of the most personal kind.

How do you visit?

The Brick is at 518 North Western Avenue in East Hollywood, open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 AM to 6 PM, closed Sunday and Monday. Admission is free. The show runs through January 16, 2027, so there is time for a quiet weekday visit.

FAQ

How long is Todd Gray: Church and State on view?

Through January 16, 2027, at The Brick, 518 N. Western Avenue, Los Angeles.

Does it cost anything?

No. The Brick is free and open to the public.

What are the hours?

Tuesday through Saturday, 11 AM to 6 PM; closed Sunday and Monday.

Was Todd Gray really Michael Jackson’s photographer?

Yes. Before and alongside his fine-art career, Gray worked as a commercial music photographer — album covers for Gladys Knight, Cheryl Lynn and Bobby Brown, and a period as Michael Jackson’s personal photographer. The exhibition pairs that archive with his gallery work for the first time.

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Sources

• The Brick, exhibition page for Todd Gray: Church and State: works, biography, curators and supporters.
• Hyperallergic, November LA guide: exhibition context and image details.

More context: our guides to Milano Chow’s Fantasy Street at Hollyhock House and Reggie Burrows Hodges at the Getty.