Home - Ken Gonzales-Day

Ken Gonzales-Day, Urban Excavation: La Metro Wilshire/Fairfax Station Concourse, 2025. Photo: Shue Her-Sturm

Ken Gonzales-Day, Urban Excavation: La Metro Wilshire/Fairfax Station Concourse, 2025

Ken Gonzales-Day, Afterlife, Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, 2025

Ken Gonzales-Day, "History's Nevermade," curated by Amelia Jones, USC Fisher Museum, 2025

Ken Gonzales-Day, "History's Nevermade," curated by Amelia Jones, USC Fisher Museum, 2025

Ken Gonzales-Day, "History's Nevermade," curated by Amelia Jones, USC Fisher Museum, 2025

Ken Gonzales-Day, "History's Nevermade," curated by Amelia Jones, USC Fisher Museum, 2025

Ken Gonzales-Day, Nightfall I, 2006, Form Forward: Norton Museum, W. Palm Beach, 2022

Unseen: Our Past in a New Light Ken Gonzales-Day and Titus Kaphar, Smithsonian Portrait Gallery, 2018

Unseen: Our Past in a New Light Ken Gonzales-Day and Titus Kaphar, Smithsonian Portrait Gallery, 2018

Unseen: Our Past in a New Light Ken Gonzales-Day and Titus Kaphar, Smithsonian Portrait Gallery, 2018

Ken Gonzales-Day, The Bone-Grass Boy, Getty PST LA/LA & Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, 2017

Ken Gonzales-Day, "Surface Tension: Murals in Los Angeles," Skirball Cultural Center, PST:LA/LA, 2017.

Ken Gonzales-Day, The Unsolved Case of "Spanish Charlie," 2015, archival ink on rag paper, 2015

Ken Gonzales-Day, Searching for California Hang Trees series, Medellin (MDE11), Colombia, 2011

Untitled (Antico, Bust of a Young Man & Harwood, Bust of a Man, Getty Museum), MAK Center for Art, 2010

Ken Gonzales-Day, The Wonder Gaze (Thurmond and Holmes, CA, 1933), Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2009

Exhibitions (opens in new tab)

Samuel Bak Museum: Past, Present, Futures (on view)

Aug 19 – Dec 20, 2026

Scripps: An Artistic Legacy: Scripps at 100 (upcoming)

Sept. 19-Dec. 13, 2026

News (opens in new tab)

LDJ: Major acquisition by the Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Aug 13, 2026

Fortress Press: Lynching in the United States

August 2026

OUT: A queer tour of LACMA’s David Geffen Galleries

Jul 30, 2026

The Work

Portraits

Projects(opens in new tab)

Public Art

Bibliography(opens in new tab)

Education & Outreach

The Practice

Ken Gonzales-Day's interdisciplinary and conceptually grounded projects consider the history of photography, the construction of race, and the limits of representational systems ranging from the lynching photograph to museum display.

Explore Work

Representation

Gonzales-Day is represented by Luis De Jesus Los Angeles where he has had six solo exhibitions, the most recent in 2025. Visit luisdejesus.com

Collections

Gonzales-Day's work is included in a wide range museum and university collections. Recent acquisitions include Yale, MoMA, LACMA, MOCA, Getty, & National Gallery, among others.