Over the fall pause, Dickinson welcomed the newest participant of the Sylvia J. Smith ’73 Artist-in-Residence program, André Leon Gray. Gray started his time at Dickinson with the opening of his gallery exhibit in the Goodyear Gallery on October 23.
According to his website, Gray was born in Raleigh, N.C., where he still lives. He is a self-taught artist, with his work being featured at the UN Headquarters, the California African American Museum, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the Gregg Museum of Art and Design at North Carolina State University.
Gray is also the recipient of the Joan Mitchell Fellowship and Research Triangle Artadia Award, as well as having two previous residencies before coming to Dickinson. He has also had his artwork featured on the TV series “Genius: MLK/X.”
As stated on his website, Gray is an “interdisciplinary, self-trained, visual practitioner seeking to engage in critical dialogue with the public at large.” He further stated that he was “interested in…the complex duality of remembering and forgetting.”
Gray’s work is in mixed media, incorporating a variety of artistic techniques and styles, as well as items not traditionally expected in art. This includes items like basketball hoops, mason jars, tar, flags, a piano, audio elements, film elements and more. Gray states that his art is derived from, “an improvisational strategy with… origins in jazz or be-bop, but also in freestyle rapping.”
His current exhibition is titled “The Game Never Changes, Only the Players,” and is on display at the Goodyear Gallery at 595 West Louther Street. Some of his work was inspired by the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, which he researched with the help of the Dickinson Archives and Special Collections and the Center for the Futures of Native Peoples.
Gray’s current exhibit, according to an article on the Dickinson website, “invites viewers to consider challenges to power structures and disruptions of social hierarchies,” while also incorporating the historical significance of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
As part of his residency, Gray will be on campus for six to eight weeks as a part of the Artist-in-Residence program and will be present in art students’ classes.
For more information from the artist himself, visit andreleongray.art. Gray’s exhibition will be on display at the Goodyear Gallery until November 11. The gallery is open from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. from Tuesday to Friday, and 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. from Saturday to Monday.
