A Window In: Michael Ray Charles

Michael Ray Charles is a painter whose work investigates the legacy of historic racial stereotypes of Black Americans. Caricatures and stereotypes once used in American advertisements such as Sambo, Aunt Jemima, pickaninnies, and Uncle Tom are employed to deconstruct and subvert images of blackness.

While Charles’ work has been the center of controversy, he has had a successful career as an artist and art educator. He is the Hugh Roy and Lillie Franz Cullen Distinguished Professor of Painting at the University of Houston, and his work has been displayed in institutions throughout world. In 2000, he served as a consultant on Spike Lee’s satirical film, Bamboozled.

Filmed in his Texas home, Consumption is a look at Charles’ creative process and approach to depicting provocative racial figures.

South Dallas Cultural Center presents A Window In: A look at Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora. Each week, SDCC will feature a curated list of videos from ART 21: Art in the Twenty First Century that highlight artists of the African Diaspora. From topics of Power and Truth to Love and Loss, these artists explore and expand the bounds of what art is and could be.