Michael Ray Charles

Michael Ray Charles was born in 1967 in Lafayette, Louisiana, and graduated from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in 1985. In college, he studied advertising design and illustration, eventually moving into painting, his preferred medium. Charles also received an MFA degree from the University of Houston in 1993. His graphically styled paintings investigate racial stereotypes drawn from a history of American advertising, product packaging, billboards, radio jingles, and television commercials. Charles draws comparisons between Sambo, Mammy, and minstrel images of an earlier era and contemporary mass-media portrayals of black youths, celebrities, and athletes—images he sees as a constant in the American subconscious.
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/charles/index.html


"(Forever Free) Hello I�m Your New Neighbor"
1997
Acrylic latex, stain, and copper penny on paper, 60 1/4 x 36 inches
Private collection
Photo by Beth Phillips
Courtesy Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York

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"Before Black (To See or Not to See)"
1997
Acrylic latex, stain, and copper penny on paper, 60 x 37 1/2 inches
Private collection
Photo by Beth Phillips
Courtesy Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York

"After Black (To See or Not to See)"
1997
Acrylic latex, stain, and copper penny on paper, 60 x 36 inches
Private collection
Photo by Beth Phillips
Courtesy Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York

"(Forever Free) Tommy Hilnigguh"
1999
Acrylic latex, stain, and copper penny on canvas, 36 x 60 1/4 inches
Private collection
Photo by Beth Phillips
Courtesy Tony Shafrazi Gallery,

"(Forever Free) Art n American"
2000
Acrylic latex and copper penny on canvas, 84 x 60 inches
Private collection
Photo by Beth Phillips
Courtesy Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York