African American History Month Brings Guest Artist to Examine Racial Identity

Photo Submitted

Michael Ray Charles

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Guest artist Michael Ray Charles will present a lecture at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 18, in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall as part of a series of events by the University of Arkansas to honor African American History Month.

Charles’ vibrant, graphically designed paintings address issues of racial identity by emphasizing the extreme nature of racist stereotypes that have historically been expressed through American media, including advertising, product packaging, radio and television. These ideas are often expressed in Charles’ work through colorful and grotesque imagery that many viewers find both abhorrent and compelling.

“A lot of blacks have accused me of perpetuating stereotypes, and I think there’s a fine line between perpetuating something and questioning something,” Charles said in a PBS interview. “I like to get as close to it as possible in order, I guess, to create that tension, to evoke thought and to have people question how they deal with these images.”

Charles’ paintings often include characters such as Sambo, Aunt Jemima and Uncle Tom that comment on contemporary racial attitudes. His work attempts to remind viewers of the way the past has shaped the racial stereotypes that he believes still affect today’s society.

Charles is a professor of art at the University of Texas at Austin as well as an internationally acclaimed artist with ongoing exhibits at Tony Shafrazi Gallery in New York City and Cotthem Galleries in Belgium and Spain. His work has been displayed in individual exhibitions worldwide and can be found in many distinguished public and private collections. He has served as a panelist and juror on the National Endowment for the Arts and the Bush Artist Fellowship in St. Paul, Minn. and has been acknowledged as one of the top young African-American scholars in academia by Black Issues In Higher Education.

Charles was among the first group of artists showcased in the PBS series ART 21, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving audience knowledge of contemporary visual art and educating the public about artists in the 21^st century. He holds degrees from McNeese State University and the University of Houston and has taught at the University of Texas at Austin since 1993.

This lecture is free and open to the public. For more information on this event, please contact the department of art at 479-575-5202.