Michael Ray Charles

The artist

Born in 1967 in Lafayette, Louisiana, USA, Michael Ray Charles currently lives and works in Austin, Texas, USA, and Gent, Belgium. He spent most of his youth in California and Louisiana. He studied design and advertising for three and a half years before being awarded a BFA degree in 1989. He went on to obtain an MFA in 1993 at the University of Houston, Texas, before teaching at the University of Texas in Austin. In 2014, he joined the faculty of the University of Houston. His work features in a wide range of public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Arizona State University Art Museum and San Antonio Museum of Art in Texas.


Exhibitions

Biography

Birth Born in 1967 in Lafayette, Louisiana, USA

Residency Lives and works in Austin, Texas, USA and Gent, Belgium
Education 1993 - MFA, University of Houston, Texas, USA



1989 - BA, McNeese State University, Lake Charles, Los Angeles, USA



SOLO EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)



2023 VENI VIDI, TEMPLON, New York, USA
2022 In the Presence of Light, TEMPLON, Paris, France
2004 Michael Ray Charles - Falk Visiting Artist, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Universitry of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA

2003 Michael Ray Charles, Cotthem Gallery, Barcelona, Spain

Michael Ray Charles, Salle Allende, Université libre de Bruxelles, Campus du Solbosch, Brussels, Belgium


2002 Michael Ray Charles: Standard 8, Cotthem Gallery, Brussels, Belgium 

Michael Ray Charles: Shiny Figures, Cotthem Gallery, Barcelona, Spain

2001 Michael Ray Charles, Cotthem Gallery, Knokke, Belgium
1999 Face Off: Michael Ray Charles/Jean-Michel Basquiat, Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, USA
Michael Ray Charles-Forever Free, Cotthem Gallery, Knokke, Belgium
Michael Ray Charles, Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York, USA

Stereo Typical Errors: Michael Ray Charles and Joyce J. Scott, Schmidt Center Gallery, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, USA



Voir plus

1998 Michael Ray Charles, Cotthem Gallery, Barcelona, Spain 

Michael Ray Charles, Galerie Hans Mayer, Dusseldorf, Germany 

1997 Michael Ray Charles, Cotthem Gallery, Knokke, Belgium

Michael Ray Charles-New Paintings , Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York, USA
Michael Ray Charles: Paintings, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, USA

1996 Michael Ray Charles, Dishman Gallery, Beaumont, Texas, USA
Michael Ray Charles: New Paintings, Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York, USA

1995 Michael Ray Charles, Galerie Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf, Germany

Michael Ray Charles: Liberty Bros. Permanent Daily Circus, Moody Gallery, Houston, USA

Michael Ray Charles: New York, Barry Whistler Gallery, Dallas, USA


1994 Michael Ray Charles: New York, Barry Whistler Gallery, Dallas, USA

Michael Ray Charles: Forever Free, Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York, USA


1993 Michael Ray Charles: Forever Free, Moody Gallery, Houston, Texas, USA

1991 Michael Ray Charles, Barnes Blackman Galleries, Houston, Texas, USA
1989-97 An American Artist’s Work, Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston, Texas, USA – Traveling exhibition ; Austin museum of Art, Texas ; then to the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, USA

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)

2023 Smoke & Mirrors: Magical Thinking in Contemporary Art, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, USA
Spike Lee: Creative Sources, Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA
De leur temps (7), un regard sur les collections privées, Frac Grand Large, Dunkerque, France
2022 Black Indians, Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, Paris, France

COLLECTIONS (SELECTION)


Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, USA

Arizona State University Museum, Tempe, Arizona, USA
Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, USA
Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado, USA
Fondation Francès, Senlis, France
Jesuit Dallas Museum, Texas, USA


Voir plus

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
Mu.Zeee, Ostend, Belgium
Open Care Collection, Milan, Italy
Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania, USA

Paul and Lulu Hiliard University Art Museum, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Louisiana, USA
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
San Antonio, Museum of Art, Texas, USA
University Museums, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, USA
University of Nebraska, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
University of Mary Hardin Baylor, Belton, Texas, USA
University of Mississipi, Oxford, Mississipi, USA
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Warfield Center Contemporary Art Collection, University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA

BIBLIOGRAPHY (SELECTION)


2023 Veni Vidi, Hedwig Van Impe, Cotthem, Barcelona and Ghent
2022 Michael Ray Charles, In the Presence of Light, Hedwig Van Impe, Cotthem, Barcelona and Ghent
2020 Michael Ray Charles. A Retrospective, dir. Cherise Smith, Texas University Press, USA
1999 Michael Ray Charles. Forever Free. Hedwig Van Impe and Remei Giralt, Cotthem Gallery , Barcelona, Spain, Knokke, Belgium
1998 Michael Ray Charles. Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York, USA

Press Release

Frieze - September, 2023

Michael Ray Charles

Folasade Ologundudu

The New York Times - April, 2023

Michael Ray Charles

Max Lakin


Art Currently - April 2023

American Minstrelsy Through The Lens of Michael Ray Charles at Templon, New York

Le Figaro - avril 2022

Michael Ray Charles chez Templon

Beaux Arts Magazine - avril 2022

Michael Ray Charles entre totems et tabous américains


Widewalls - mars 2022

Complex oeuvre of Michael Ray Charles Will be Unveiled at Galerie Templon

Design Boom - mars 2022

In The Presence of Light at Galerie Templon

Connaissance des Arts - mars 2022

Michael Ray Charles, 20 ans déjà


The Baer Faxt - décembre 2021

The Bear Fast Dispatch: Art Basel Miami Beach

The Art Newspaper - décembre 2021

L'artiste américain Michael Ray Charles rejoint la Galerie Templon

Gazette Drouot - décembre 2021

Templon rerésente l'artiste afro-américain Michael Ray Charles

News

Michael Ray Charles
SMOKE AND MIRRORS: MAGICAL THINKING IN CONTEMPORARY ART

Group show

Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida
From November 18, 2023 to May 12, 2024

As on the occasion of the group show Smoke and Mirrors: Magical Thinking in Contemporary Art, Michael Ray Charles will be exhibiting his work The Magic Man, curated by Kathleen Goncharov, from November 18, 2023. The exhibition’s title refers both to performative magic and to the “magical thinking” in today’s culture rife with disinformation, conspiracy theories, and “alternative facts.” 

Michael Ray Charles
Kehinde Wiley
SPIKE LEE: CREATIVE SOURCES

Group show

Brooklyn Museum
Until February 4, 2024

On the occasion of the group exhibition Spike Lee: Creative Sources, Michael Ray Charles and Kehinde Wiley are exhibiting their works at the Brooklyn Museum in New York. An immersive installation of objects drawn from Spike Lee’s personal collection of artworks by prominent Black American artists.

Jean-Michel Alberola
Michael Ray Charles
Oda Jaune
Prune Nourry
DE LEUR TEMPS, UN REGARD SUR DES COLLECTIONS PRIVÉES

Group show

Frac Grand Large, France
From January 28 to April 23, 2023

As part of the group show De leur temps at the Frac Grand Large, Jean-Michel Alberola, Oda Jaune, Michael Ray Charles and Prune Nourry will exhibit their works from 28 January to 23 April 2023.

Michael Ray Charles
BLACK INDIANS DE LA NOUVELLE ORLéAN

Group show

Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac Museum, France
From October 4, 2022 to January 15, 2023

Opening on October 4, the exhibition “Blacks Indians From New Orlean” will present two artworks by afro-american Michael Ray Charles. Via a geographical and chronolical journey featuring interviews, contemporary costumes and traditional works, the exhibition reveals a singular culture, built by more than three centuries of resistance against the assault of social and racial domination.

Michael Ray Charles
GALERIE TEMPLON ANNOUNCES FIRST SHOW OF AMERICAN ARTIST MICHAEL RAY CHARLES IN TWO DECADES

Representation

Galerie Templon is delighted to announce that American artist Michael Ray Charles joins the gallery roster. With the valuable collaboration of his agent Hedwig Van Impe, the gallery will unveil for the first time in almost two decades the complex, visually striking and often disturbing oeuvre of one of the most radical African-American artists of his generation. Templon will reveal over time his spectacular series of unseen paintings and sculptures.