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.
Born in 1967 in Lafayette, USA
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, Galerie 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
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
1989-1997: An American Artist’s Work, Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston, Texas, USA ; traveled to the Austin museum of Art, Texas ; then to the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, 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
PUBLIC 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
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
Mu.Zeee, Ostend, Belgium
Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania, USA
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 Wiscounsin, Madison, Wiscounsin, USA
Warfield Center Contemporary Art Collection, University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA
BIBLIOGRAPHY (SELECTION)
2022
In The Presence Of Light. Hedwig Van Impe, Cotthem Publisher, Barcelona.
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
