Kris Graves
Kris Graves (b. 1982 New York, NY) is an artist and publisher based in New York and London. He received his BFA in Visual Arts from S.U.N.Y. Purchase College and has been published and exhibited globally, including the National Portrait Gallery in London, England and Aperture Gallery, New York; among others. Permanent collections include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Schomburg Center, Whitney Museum, Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Brooklyn Museum; and The Wedge Collection, Toronto; High Museum, Atlanta; amongst others. Graves creates artwork that deals with societal problems and aims to use art as a means to inform people about cultural issues. He 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. Graves creates photographs of landscapes and people to preserve memory.
Formerly +Kris Graves Projects Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, +KGP collaborates with artists to create limited edition publications and archival prints, focusing on contemporary photography and works on paper. They focus on making books and prints affordable to every level of collector. +KGP participates in book fairs in London, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Vancouver, and New York City. 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.
Interviews
Huffington Post, February 2016
Strange Fire Collective, October 2015
General Coverage
Good Morning America, December 2020
MSNBC’s PoliticsNation with Al Sharpton, December 2020
Washington Post, December 2020
National Action Network, December 2020
Texas News Today, December 2020
Good Morning Chicago, December 2020
Humble Arts Foundation, October 2015

AKAI GURLEY, EAST NEW YORK, BROOKLYN (11:15 P.M.)
Akai Gurley died in a dark stairwell inside a project building on Linden Boulevard. Directly across the street, cops stand on the corner under high-intensity lights. While Graves took the first photograph, four consecutive gunshots rang out, loud but out of view. Seconds later, five teenagers ran past. The cops stationed on the corner crossed the wide lanes of traffic in an instant to the project side of the block. At the end of the photo shoot, there were at least 50 cops on the block, and half of Linden Boulevard was closed.

ALTON STERLING, BATON ROUGE (12:35 A.M.)
The Triple S Mart is a popular store with cars in and out of the parking lot. It had just rained and they have the memorial covered with a tarp. Some people driving through town stop and say they had never noticed the memorial before. Two people approach from across the street and ask to introduce the artist of the mural. They say they are interested in museum and gallery exhibitions and grant funding for their projects. The truth is, these places are not always as dangerous as they seem.

ERIC GARNER, STATEN ISLAND (3:30 P.M.)
Eric Garner died a 10-minute walk from the ferry terminal. In the park across the street, men gamble at a game called “quarters.” Outside of the Bay Beauty Supply, there is a small Plexiglas memorial with flowers in it. The man selling incense and oils outside of the store says he made the memorial. He says he had been on that street hustling, like Garner, for more than 30 years. He says he knew Eric and saw him in the neighborhood the day before he died.

FREDDIE GRAY, BALTIMORE (8:40 A.M.)
Baltimore is so beautiful. The houses are gorgeous, the streets are wide, and there are ample green spaces. One problem is that the neighborhoods haven’t been kept up, the streets aren’t cared for, and the green spaces are scarcely usable. It’s sad because it seems like the entire neighborhood could turn around in an instant if there were even a little bit of money spent in the community of the forgotten. There were people outside talking, but it was a pretty quiet scene.

MICHAEL BROWN, FERGUSON (12:00 P.M.)
On the way over, the cab driver says the cops are much better after the riot. He says there are bad apples everywhere, but that the neighborhood is like any other. It’s quiet, with the occasional bass thump from passing cars. People say hello; women push babies in strollers; a father drives back from McDonald’s with his two children. A bartender says: “Make us look good. We’re not monsters. We’re not evil. Families live in those homes.”

PHILANDO CASTILE, MINNESOTA (9:10 P.M.)
Philando Castile was killed in front of his family, very close to the northern entrance of the Minnesota State Fair, before it opened for the season. On the day of this photo shoot, there must have been more than 100,000 people in attendance. The road where he died is large and empty, and you can see far in each direction—a normal turnpike by any measure.

TAMIR RICE, CLEVELAND (3:30 P.M.)
Tamir Rice was killed less than two seconds after police officers approached him on a cold day in a beautiful park behind an elementary school. On this day, it is a place that is full of children playing, but there are no adults in sight. It seems like a pretty safe space.

WALTER SCOTT, CHARLESTON (9:30 A.M.)
Walter Scott was killed in an empty field in an unremarkable suburb north of Charleston. It is nerve-racking to walk into that field, because it is difficult to tell if it is private or public property. It feels terrible to walk in the same line of fire as Scott did in order to make the photographs. The photo shoot was not a long one.

Testament, Volume 03
Text by Carrie Robbins, PhD
Published by Bryn Mawr
Softcover, 52 pages, 22 plates, English, 2016
ISBN 978-0-9884183-8-7
$24

Testament, Volume 01
Co-published by +KGP and Blue Sky Gallery
Softcover, 64 pages, 39 plates, English, 2016
IBSN 978-0-9884183-6-3
$24

Provisional Scenery
Published by +KGP
Softcover, 64 pages, 57 plates, English, 2015
$24

Discovered Missing
Text by Joshua Yaffa
Illustrations by Rena Teratani and Carin Johnson
Published by +KGP
Hardcover, 96 pages, 48 plates, English, 2014
ISBN 978-0-9884183-1-8
$300 (signed)

Permanence
Introduction by Thomas Chatterton Williams
Text by Sergio. A. Fernández
Illustrations by Carin Johnson
Published by +KGP
Hardcover, 144 pages, 77 plates, English, 2012
ISBN 978-0-9884183-0-1
$75 (signed)

A Queens Affair
Introduction by Sergio A. Fernández
Illustrations by Carin Johnson
Published by +KGP
Softcover, 64 pages, 43 plates, English, 2010
$20 (signed)