page_title: Michael Ray Charles
section_title: Career and achievements
hierarchical_section_title: Michael Ray Charles / Career and achievements
caption_attribution_description: English: 2015 sculpture by Michael Ray Charles, on display at The University of Texas at Austin as part of their public art program, Landmarks.
context_page_description: Michael Ray Charles is an African-American painter born in Lafayette, Louisiana. He won the Rome Prize in 2018.
context_section_description: Charles is amongst the first group of artists showcased in the 2001, PBS series titled "Art:21." The watershed series highlights top artists of the 21st century. A 2003 article in Black Issues In Higher Education acknowledges Charles as one of the top future African-American scholars under forty. In 2000, he was a consultant on Spike Lee's film, "Bamboozled" and has been the subject of several film documentaries.
  He has served as a panelist for National Endowment for the Arts and jurors for The Bush Artist Fellowship, St. Paul, Minnesota. and the Inaugural Biennial Underground Railroad Exhibition, Northern Kentucky University, Kentucky.
  Most recently, his work was included in the 2006 documentary "Race is the Place" and exhibitions at Cotthem Gallery, Barcelona, Spain and the PMMK Museum of Modern Art, Ostend, Belgium.
  He lectures and exhibits nationally and internationally, and his work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in New York City, Düsseldorf, Paris, Belgium, Spain, Norway, Miami, and Santa Fe. His work is documented in many books, magazines and news papers as well as an extensive number public and private collection around the world including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, San Antonio Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, the Austin Museum of Art, and Landmarks, the public art program of the University of Texas at Austin.
  Today, Charles continues to exhibit in national and international venues. His work remains the subject of books, magazines, and newspaper articles and is included in many public and private collection. Charles worked as a Professor of Art in the department of Art and Art History at The University of Texas at Austin until 2014. In 2014 Charles was appointed the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor of Painting in the School of Art at the University of Houston. He now lives in Houston, Texas.
  In September 2019, Charles opened a new exhibition at the UMLAUF in Austin, Texas. The exhibit includes both old and new works, a site specific work about the slave ship Clotilda, as well as select items from Charles' research collection of racist imagery in advertising.
caption: (Forever Free) Ideas, Languages, and Conversations is a 2015 sculpture by Michael Ray Charles on display at The University of Texas at Austin as part of their public art program, Landmarks.[6]