In 2018, Todd Gray was invited by Silverstein Properties, in partnership with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, to be among the artists creating murals on the facades of corrugated metal sheds that will one day become service entrances to 2 World Trade Center. Gray's 25-by-65-foot mural, Flabbergast, is a rollicking condensation of borrowed riffs from pop art’s history, deconstructed and reassembled into something that is absolutely modern.

Todd Gray, installation view in Santa Monica; Credit: Courtesy of Skidmore Contemporary Art

Todd Gray, installation view in Santa Monica; Credit: Courtesy of Skidmore Contemporary Art

Gray says, “What I am doing is more or less sampling what great pop artists have sampled in the past — be it Warhol's soup cans or Brillo boxes, or Lichtenstein's cartoons or Indiana's numbers. I'm using abbreviated and sampled classic images of pop from the past and trying to combine them into new, relevant and recognizable contemporary pop art.”

Watch the video (below) of Todd Gray's Flabbergast in progress in New York here, and see his smaller-scale works for wall and floor at Skidmore Contemporary Art in Santa Monica through Feb. 2.

Todd Gray Paints 'Flabbergast' at Tower 2 World Trade Center from Bobby Grandone on Vimeo.

Skidmore Contemporary Art, Bergamot Art Center, 2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica; (310) 828-5070; skidmorecontemporaryart.com; through Feb. 2.

Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.