Project Description

Todd Gray’s artwork concept for the station’s glass entrance plaza and escalator landing walls juxtaposes archival architectural drawings by S. Charles Lee and historic photographs of the nearby Saban Theatre (formerly the Fox Wilshire Theatre) with a multicultural selection of iconic textile patterns. The recontextualized imagery invites viewers to consider the region’s history of migration and shifting demographics over time and under the influence of grand architecture.

Artist Statement

“Historically, the culture of Los Angeles and the American Dream was transmitted globally through film. The representation of the American Dream in cinema was dominated by images of [the] majority culture, and images of minority cultures and communities were rare. I’ve collaged images into my design to engage this narrative and paint a broader, more inclusive cultural picture.”

About the Artist

TODD GRAY (b. 1954, Los Angeles) combines layered, framed photographs to recontextualize images. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts. His artwork has been featured in numerous US exhibitions and is in the permanent collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. He is a professor emeritus of photography and digital imaging at California State University, Long Beach, and has been an artist-in-residence at Hermitage Artist Retreat, Light Works and the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center. Gray is a 2018 John S. Guggenheim Fellow and is the recipient of grants from the California Community Foundation, the Durfee Foundation, Pasadena Art Alliance and Los Angeles’s Department of Cultural Affairs. He has completed numerous public commissions nationwide as a principal partner of Shin Gray Studios, including artworks for California Medical Hospital, Chicago Transit Authority, Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles County libraries and San Bernardino Transit.