Almost all of the work on my site is available for purchase. My usual print sizes are 16 x 20”, 32 x 40”, and 50 x 60”. All prints are made in very limited edition.

Represented by SASHA WOLF PROJECTS - Contact Sasha Wolf

+KRIS GRAVES - kris | graves | at | gmail | dot | com

Kris Graves (b. 1982 New York, NY) is an artist and publisher based in New York and California. Graves creates artwork that deals with societal problems and aims to use art as a means to inform people about cultural issues. Using a mix of conceptual and documentary practices, Graves photographs the subtleties of societal power and its impact on the built environment. He explores how capitalism and power have shaped countries -- and how that can be seen and experienced in everyday life. Graves also works to elevate the representation of people of color in the fine art canon; and to create opportunities for conversation about race, representation, and urban life. He photographs to preserve memory.

Graves received his BFA in Visual Arts from S.U.N.Y. Purchase College and has been published and exhibited globally, including Museum of Modern Art, New York; Getty Institute, Los Angeles; and National Portrait Gallery in London, England; among others. Permanent collections include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Getty Institute, Schomburg Center, Whitney Museum, Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Brooklyn Museum; and The Wedge Collection, Toronto; amongst others.

Graves also sits on the board of Blue Sky Gallery: Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts, Portland; and The Architectural League of New York as Vice President of Photography.


PRIVILEGED MEDIOCRITY
“Privileged Mediocrity” examines systemic unfairness in the United States. Using a mix of conceptual and documentary photographic practices, I reacted to the subtleties of societal power and its impact on the built environment of America and the construction of public and private space. The ideas within explore how racism, capitalism, and power have shaped our country -- and how that can be seen and experienced in everyday life.

A BLEAK REALITY
"A Bleak Reality" is a series of eight photographs taken at the exact locations where unarmed Black men were killed by police officers. While each photo represents a single life and death, they collectively address the broader issues of institutionalized racism and violence against the Black community, especially Black men. These social divisions and the startling lack of empathy are exacerbated by perpetuating harmful stereotypes. Kris Graves traveled across the country to document the physical spaces where these lives ended, spaces that continue to be replaced by new tragedies.
This reality is measured not only in numbers or statistics but in individual lives.

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EDUCATION 2004, BFA - Visual Arts, School of Art + Design, Purchase College, New York

RESIDENCIES
2022 Artist in Residence, Aurora Photo Center, Indianapolis, Indiana
2020 Artist in Residence, Center for Photography Woodstock, New York
2019 Artist in Residence, Light Work, Syracuse, New York

AWARDS
2023 Amplifier Fellowship, Democracy in Focus
2021 The Aftermath Project Grant, United States
2017 Anne Wilkes Tucker Young Photographers Endowment, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
2017 Aperture Portfolio Prize Shortlist, Aperture Foundation, New York
2015 Juror's Selection, Center Forward 2015, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, Colorado

TEACHING Adjunct Professor, The New School / Parsons School of Design, New York

COLLECTIONS
Brooklyn Museum, New York
Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio
Duke University, North Carolina
Getty Institute, Los Angeles
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
Smith College, Massachusetts
The Wedge Collection, Toronto, Canada

COLLECTIONS (publications)
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library
Arcadia University, Landman Library, Pennsylvania
Bryn Mawr College, Canaday Library, Pennsylvania
Duke University, North Carolina
Getty Institute, Los Angeles
Guggenheim Museum Library and Archives, New York
Maryland Institute College of Art, Decker Library, Maryland
Massachusetts College of Art, Godine Library, Massachusetts
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Thomas J. Watson Library, New York
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, John M Flaxman Library Special Collections, Illinois
Stanford University, Green Library, California
Whitney Museum, Frances Mulhall Achilles Library, New York
Yale University Library, New Haven, Connecticut

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024
American Monuments, Rubenstein Library, Duke University
2022
A Southern Horror, Aurora Photo Center X Tube Factory, Indianapolis, Indiana
2021
Truth and Ruin, Wright State University, Ohio
Testaments, Ursinus College, Collegeville, Pennsylvania
2020
Testaments, Transmitter Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
The Testament Project, Austin Central Library, Texas
2019
Testaments, Peddie School, New Jersey
2017
The Testament Project, Joseph Gross Gallery, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
The Testament Project, Art on Paper X Sasha Wolf Projects, New York, New York
2016
The Testament Project, Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania
The Testament Project, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, Colorado
The Testament Project, NorteMaar, Brooklyn, New York
The Testament Project, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2013 Discovered Missing, Pocket Utopia, New York
2012 Permanence, Pocket Utopia, New York
2011 Second Nature w/ Kared Rudd, Baang & Burne Contemporary, New York
2010 A Queens Affair w/ Eric Hairabedian, Farmani Gallery, New York

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
Hidden Histories, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
Multiplying Power: Image as Protest in Prints and Photographs, Smith College Museum of Art, Massachusetts
America in Crisis, American Museum, Bath, England
Light Work 50th Anniversary, Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York
2022
A Picture Gallery of the Soul, University of Minnesota, Minnesota
America in Crisis, Saatchi Gallery, London, England
Pained Vistas, Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle, Washington
2021
In Focus: Protest, J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Atmospheres, Pace Gallery
2020
Examining the American Dream, Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle, Washington
LOST Carmel, Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, California
2018
All Power: Visual Legacies of the Black Panther Party, Sarah Surgeon Gallery, Central Washington University
All Power: Visual Legacies of the Black Panther Party, Pacific Center Northwest, Seattle, Washington
Disruption, Center for Photography Woodstock, New York
Legacy of the Cool, Bakalar and Paine Galleries, Boston, Massachusetts
2017
Three Minutes, En Foco / Hamilton Landmark Galleries, New York
The Legacy of Lynching: Confronting Racial Terror in America, Brooklyn Museum
Summer Open, Aperture Gallery, New York
Unbound, Candela Gallery, Richmond, Virginia
Art.Now.2017, Hearst Galleries, New York
Future Isms, Glassbox Gallery, Seattle, Washington
2016
Exchange, Rush Arts and IThou, Rush Arts Gallery, New York
The Soul of Black Art, Upfor Gallery, Portland, Oregon
Public/Private/Portrait, Deli Gallery, New York
First Annual Exhibition, Los Angeles Center of Photography, Los Angeles, California
The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2015, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh
The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2015, The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent
Headshots: Contemporary Photographic Portraiture, ClampArt Gallery, New York City
2015
The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2015, National Portrait Gallery, London
Center Forward 2015, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, Colorado
Philadelphia Photo Arts Center 6th Annual Exhibition, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2013
East of Man, Eternally in Kodak, Needles and Pens, San Francisco, California
4th Annual, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2010
Perception of Character, LittleField, Brooklyn, New York
Versus, Hous Projects, New York, New York
2008
Three Photographers, Pocket Utopia, Brooklyn, New York
2007
Not Yet Utopic, Pocket Utopia, Brooklyn, New York
2006
Investigation! Contemplation! Reaction!, Local Project, New York
Far From Home, Brooklyn Artists Gym, Brooklyn, New York
Group Show No.3, Humble Arts Foundation, New York
New Waves 2006, Contemporary Center of Virginia

PUBLICATIONS
Truth and Ruin (2-book set), 2021, Hatje Kantz + Monolith Editions
LOST The Bronx, 2019, +Kris Graves Projects
A Bleak Reality: NotWrong Volume 01, 2018, +Kris Graves Projects
LOST Long Island City, 2018, +Kris Graves Projects
Photo District News, August 2017 (cover photograph)
Lynching in America, Equal Justice Initiative / Google, 2017
Dear Dave, Issue 23, 2016 (cover photograph)
Public/Private/Portrait, International Center of Photography / Mossless, 2016
The Testament Project by Kris Graves, Volume 03, 2016, Bryn Mawr College
BKN Magazine, Issue Two, 2016
The Testament Project by Kris Graves, Volume 01, 2016, Blue Sky Gallery
Provisional Scenery by Kris Graves, 2015, +Kris Graves Projects
Discovered Missing by Kris Graves, 2013, +Kris Graves Projects 
Permanence by Kris Graves, 2012, +Kris Graves Projects
A Queens Affair by Kris Graves & Eric Hairabedian, 2010, +Kris Graves Projects

VISITING ARTIST + LECTURES + PANELS
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut (lecture)
Hartford University, Connecticut (visiting artist + lecture)
Stanford University, California (lecture)
New York University, New York (lecture)
Pace University, New York (lecture)
Georgia State University (visiting artist + lecture)
Massachusetts College of Art, Massachusetts (visiting artist + lecture)
School of Visual Arts, New York (lectures)
Virginia Commonwealth University (lecture)
Lesley University (lecture)
Arcadia University, Pennsylvania (lecture)
Rowan University, New Jersey (lecture)
University of Kansas (visiting artist + lecture)
University of Utah, Salt Lake City (lecture)
University of Nebraska, Lincoln (visiting artist + lecture)
University of Arizona, Tucson (visiting artist + lecture)
University of the Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (lecture)
Borough of Manhattan Community College (lecture)
Union Contemporary Art Center, Nebraska (panel discussion + lecture)
Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan (visiting artist + lecture)
International Center of Photography, New York (lectures)
Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania (visiting artist + lecture)
Parsons School of Design, New York (visiting artist + lecture)
Purchase College, State University of New York (visiting artist + lectures)
The Graduate Center, City University of New York Baccalaureate, New York (panel discussion)
Bowling Green State University, Ohio (visiting artist + lecture)

Houston Center of Photography, Texas (panel discussion)
Montclair Art Museum (lecture)
Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, Oregon (lecture)
Harvard Business School Club of New York (panel discussion + lecture)
American Society of Picture Professionals, New York, New York (lecture)
American Society of Media Photographers, Richmond, Virginia (lecture)
MadridFoto Art Fair, Madrid, Spain (lecture)

MUSEUM/GALLERY CLIENTS
Ameringer / McEnery / Yohe
Barbican Gallery
Center for Architecture, New York
Denver Art Museum
Galerie Lelong
Hudson River Museum
Joan Mitchell Foundation
J. Paul Getty Museum
Museum of Modern Art
Pace Gallery
Paul Kasmin Gallery
PS1, Museum of Modern Art

CLIENTS
Architectural League of New York
ASH Footwear
Bureau Betak
City University of New York
Cornell University
Equal Justice Initiative
Gap, Inc.
Google, Inc.
Hiker
Huffington Post
Jones New York
Mattel, Inc.
MTV Networks
New York Magazine
Nike
Penguin Books
Phaidon Books
Pfizer
Samsung
Sony Music Group
Vanity Fair
Watson & Company

PRESS
Kris Graves – Aperture Portfolio Prize Runner-Up, Aperture, 2017
Back to the Future, Aperture Blog, 2017
The Everyday Streets, Parks, and Shops Where Police Have Taken Black Lives, Vanity Fair (Hive), 2016
The Testament Project, aCurator, 2016
Testament, Volume I, by Kris Graves, GUP Magazine, 2016
Black Men Stage Their Own Portraits In Enpowering Photo Series, by Maddie Crum, Huffington Post, 2016
Stunning Portraits of Black Men That Accurately Portray How They See Themselves, by David Rosenberg, Behold/Slate, 2016
Kris Graves' Testament Project Sheds Light on Institutionalized Racism, by Jon Feinstien, Humble Arts Foundation, 2015
Q & A: Kris Graves, by Hamidah Glasgow, Strange Fire Collective, 2015
Bronx Contours: A Photo Essay by Kris Graves, Urban Omnibus, 2015
Intimate Distances: Kris Graves’ Cold Comfort, Hyperallergic, 2013
Some More Trees, HaberArts, 2013
Kris Graves: Permanence, Lenscratch, 2012
What’s Your Niche: Photographing Art for the Guggenheim Museum, PDN, 2011
Breaking In: Gallerist and Photographer Kris Graves, PhotoVideoEDU, 2011

AS PUBLISHER/ EDITOR
visit kgpnyc.com