Join interdisciplinary artist André Leon Gray for a conversation on history, power, displacement, and identity as he discusses his solo exhibition Full Spectrum Dominance on view at Artspace from May 2-June 29.

Artist Statement

“Full Spectrum Dominance is a visual exploration utilizing works that meditate between culture, identity, displacement and history while challenging power structures and disrupting social hierarchies. I am interested in illuminating the complex duality of remembering and forgetting by constantly rousing the past and present, while addressing the elephant in the room.

The title of this exhibition refers to a military entity’s achievement of control over all dimensions of the battlespace, including terrestrial, aerial, maritime, psychological, and bio-or cyber-technological warfare. Here, the title connects to the global hegemony imposed with colonialism and imperialism. In poly-tricks, the need for dominance is fueled by greed.

I am exploring the universal law of cause and effect, particularly how political structures and actions of a few affect the livelihood of the masses, whether it is stealing land from indigenous people to fulfill a Doctrine of Discovery and a Manifest Destiny, or obliterating land and its residents to expand a young empire in the 21st Century.”

About André Leon Gray

André Leon Gray was born in 1969 in Raleigh, North Carolina where he lives and works as a self-trained interdisciplinary artist. He was Artspace’s first Emerging Artist in Residence in 2000.

Within his installations, tar paintings, drawings, collages, sculptures, video and audio, he explores and investigates power structures, social hierarchies, culture, identity, and history. His artistic practice primarily uses discarded and reclaimed objects charged with sociopolitical meaning to forge links between the past and the present.

His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including Post Hip Hop? or return of the Boom Bap!, Project Row Houses, Houston (2024) and Sikkema Jenkins & Co. Gallery, New York (2023) curated by william cordova; To the Hoop: Basketball in Contemporary Art, Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2020); and Dust My Broom: Southern Vernacular from the Permanent Collection, California African American Museum, Los Angeles (2019-20). In 2023, he produced two Miami bass inspired songs for william cordova’s installation in the traveling exhibition The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century.

Gray is a recipient of the 2024 Joan Mitchell Fellowship and the 2023 21c Research Triangle Artadia Award. He was the 2024/25 Sylvia Smith ’73 Artist-in-Residence at Dickinson College and has attended several residencies including the Atlantic Center for the Arts Residency (2024); McColl Center Artist Residency (2022); and the Fountainhead Residency (2011). Gray’s artwork is in the permanent collection of the California African American Museum, the North Carolina Museum of Art, and the Gregg Museum of Art & Design at NC State University.

About Artspace

Artspace is a non-profit visual arts center located in Downtown Raleigh. Visit Artspace to explore exhibitions featuring national and community artists, engage with more than 35 artists working in their studios, and enjoy art classes and community events for all ages and abilities. To learn more about Artspace, visit artspacenc.org

Parking and Accessibility

Free street parking is available on Davie Street. Metered parking is available on adjacent streets. There are also several pay lots/decks nearby: City Market parking lot, Blount Street parking deck, and several Secure P lots for night + weekend parking (314 E Davie St, 415 S Person St, 417 S Person St).

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