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Carmen Gray (Valencia, ES, 1989) graduated in Photography in 2010 and Art History in 2018. After completing her undergraduate studies, she established her studio in Amsterdam. In 2021, she began an MA in Experimental Publishing at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam, later moving to London to complete an MFA at Goldsmiths. With photography and travel at the core of her practice, she has lived, worked, and studied across Spain, the Netherlands, Poland, and the United States. She is now based in London and part of London Art Services.
She takes photos - almost instinctively. Photography first offered a tool, while living in different countries and studying Art History became a way of gathering experiences, ideas, and material to experiment with. This lived process has formed an evolving archive of images, videos, collaborations, textiles, ceramic objects, and publications. Her practice unfolds between friends, the darkroom, and the daily return to the studio, approaching the world as an open and continuously unfolding place.
She takes photos - almost instinctively. Photography first offered a tool, while living in different countries and studying Art History became a way of gathering experiences, ideas, and material to experiment with. This lived process has formed an evolving archive of images, videos, collaborations, textiles, ceramic objects, and publications. Her practice unfolds between friends, the darkroom, and the daily return to the studio, approaching the world as an open and continuously unfolding place.
Works for sale on auction:
Watch stopped working again
2024
Archival Handprint
Edition of 2
40 x 50 cm
SOLD
Lessons 2 (from Burnout)
2022
Archival Inkjet Print in Epson Matt 170 grams
Edition of 1o
60 x 85 cm
SOLD
Sasha's grapefruit
2023
Resin-coated Handprint
3 x 16.5 cm
SOLD
Lesson 2 (from Burnout, 2022)
This is a digital photograph (which is quite rare in my practice) of a set-up we made in my studio in Amsterdam for the poster of the show Burnout, which I did together with Alex Z. just after the pandemic. The show brough together my ceramic ashtrays and his candleholders. The title refers to what we jokingly called “lesson 2” — the moment I accidentally set part of my studio on fire while trying to achieve a burnt paper edge effect. The result was chaotic but visually compelling, and ended up shaping the whole project. The publicatio we later made combined documentation of the works with the remains of the fire and the staged set-ups before burning them.
Watch stopped working again (2024)
This is a colour darkroom print from a 35mm photograph that I shot and enlarged myself. I made two prints in this size and one smaller one — this is the best one (one of the others came out slightly too magenta). The image comes from a long-standing fixation I have with watches and time — the feeling of racing against it, and the desir to capture a precise moment. This photograph was taken on the 8th of April 2024, just after boarding a plane at Gatwick, on my way home after my brother called to say my dad was in ICU. When I looked at my watch, it had stopped. That moment — being in the air, suspended in time, holding my breath between flights — is what the image holds for me.
Sasha’s Grapefruit (2024)
This is also a colour darkroom handprint, made while trying to push the scale as small as possible with the enlarger. I originally started making these small prints to
give to friends, almost like little objects you can carry — something between a photograph and a sticker. The image shows my friend Sasha’s grapefruit, which she was eating while writing her final MFA dissertation in the Goldsmiths Deptford studios, during a very hot afternoon in August 2024. The print is encased in resin, almost lik a small preserved fragment of that moment.
This is a digital photograph (which is quite rare in my practice) of a set-up we made in my studio in Amsterdam for the poster of the show Burnout, which I did together with Alex Z. just after the pandemic. The show brough together my ceramic ashtrays and his candleholders. The title refers to what we jokingly called “lesson 2” — the moment I accidentally set part of my studio on fire while trying to achieve a burnt paper edge effect. The result was chaotic but visually compelling, and ended up shaping the whole project. The publicatio we later made combined documentation of the works with the remains of the fire and the staged set-ups before burning them.
Watch stopped working again (2024)
This is a colour darkroom print from a 35mm photograph that I shot and enlarged myself. I made two prints in this size and one smaller one — this is the best one (one of the others came out slightly too magenta). The image comes from a long-standing fixation I have with watches and time — the feeling of racing against it, and the desir to capture a precise moment. This photograph was taken on the 8th of April 2024, just after boarding a plane at Gatwick, on my way home after my brother called to say my dad was in ICU. When I looked at my watch, it had stopped. That moment — being in the air, suspended in time, holding my breath between flights — is what the image holds for me.
Sasha’s Grapefruit (2024)
This is also a colour darkroom handprint, made while trying to push the scale as small as possible with the enlarger. I originally started making these small prints to
give to friends, almost like little objects you can carry — something between a photograph and a sticker. The image shows my friend Sasha’s grapefruit, which she was eating while writing her final MFA dissertation in the Goldsmiths Deptford studios, during a very hot afternoon in August 2024. The print is encased in resin, almost lik a small preserved fragment of that moment.
