In 2021, ICA LA inaugurated a new series of artist editions, each made in collaboration with a beloved member of the LA artist community. The first edition was created by renowned artist, educator, and longtime ICA LA Board member Charles Gaines. Taking on the form of a wooden bookshelf speaker, Gaines’ Sound Box features a record of the rendition of the powerfully evocative 1939 song “Strange Fruit", written in response to a horrifying era of lynching. While evoking the ongoing legacies of this violent history, Gaines’ work also speaks to the ways that music and the visual arts have been instrumental among communities of color to process, mourn, and raise awareness.

In 2024, we released the second artist edition by acclaimed artist, teacher, and ICA LA Board Member Todd Gray. Titled Euclidean Meta Gris Gris, this single framed photograph features selections of photographs from Gray’s archive that appear juxtaposed against and atop one another in various scales and configurations. Bringing Western cultural references together with those associated with Africa ritual, Gray’s edition critically examines and reframes the fraught histories of Western imperialism and the transatlantic slave trade that continue to haunt our contemporary reality.

All proceeds from the artist editions directly benefit ICA LA’s exhibitions and public programs, enabling us to keep all that we do free and accessible for all.

For inquiries about these editions please contact Nick Stephens-Seckler.