Known for “complex, layered paintings” that examine power, race, and gender, Michael Ray Charles has been named the Texas State Two-Dimensional Artist for 2024, as announced by the Texas Commission on the Arts and selected by a committee of the Texas Legislature.
Charles is the Hugh Roy and Lillie Franz Cullen Distinguished Professor of Painting at the University of Houston. From 2018-2019, he spent nearly a year in residence at the American Academy in Rome as the recipient of the Joseph H. Hazen Rome Prize, considered one of the most prestigious honors awarded to practicing artists.
His art is represented by major museum collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Charles has also been featured in the PBS series, Art21: Art in the 21st Century.
Charles’ work explores historic African-American stereotypes from the Antebellum South, appropriating images from advertising and pop culture to expose the underlying racism prevalent in contemporary culture. He creates a vocabulary of cultural, racial, and historical images to explore caricatures that continue to survive in popular media, such as Aunt Jemima or Sambo.
Texas Commission on the Arts
In a March 2023 feature by Nancy Coleman in the New York Times, Charles said, “I’m still painting about minstrelsy. Certain characteristics are similar to my early work, but my understanding of its intersections in history and culture is more complex.”
Texas State Artist positions are the state’s highest recognition for excellence in the arts. The honorary positions include one-year terms, which are unpaid and do not include specific duties.
Charles’ appointment comes as the Texas Legislature recently selected eight artists to serve in 2023 and 2024 in the positions of state poet laureate, state musician, state two-dimensional artist, and state three-dimensional artist.
“In honoring these individuals, we bring attention to the important role the arts play in shaping Texas’ cultural landscape,” said Gary Gibbs, Texas Commission on the Arts Executive Director, in a statement.
“These Texas State Artists are the best of the best. Their work defines our character of place and reflects the distinctive qualities that make Texas unique,” Gibbs said.
Charles is the only Houstonian selected during this current cycle of state artists, whose previous cycle included Houstonians Jesse Lott as 2022 Texas State 3-D Artist and Lupe Mendez as 2022 Texas State Poet Laureate.
A complete list of the new Texas State Artists can be found here.
Houston Arts Journal 