Born in 1967 in Lafayette, Louisiana, Michael Ray Charles currently lives and works in Austin, Texas, and Gent, Belgium. He studied design and advertising for three and a half years and received a BA degree in 1989 from McNeese State University, Lake Charles, Louisiana. He also received an MFA in 1993 at the University of Houston, Texas, before teaching at the University of Texas in Austin. He joined the faculty of the University of Houston in 2014, where he currently in a Distinguished Professor of Painting. His work is inlcuded in numerous collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin, San Antonio, Museum of Art, Texas, Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas.
