Melissa Cody

Born 1983 in No Water Mesa, Arizona, Melissa S. Cody is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation. In 2007, she received a Bachelor’s degree in Studio Arts and Museum Studies from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

A fourth-generation Navajo weaver, Cody’s intricate tapestries are often associated with the Germantown Revival, a stylistic movement named after the government wool from Germantown, Pennsylvania, that was supplied to the Navajo during the time of the Long Walk. The weaving style was characterized by a complex interaction of traditional and historical contingencies: Vivid commercial dyes and new economic pressures prompted enterprising Navajo weavers to adapt, creating bold new textiles. The commercial viability of the craft became a means of continuance, even as it altered it.

Cody’s work carries that balance of tradition, history, and contemporaneity forward. Working on both a traditional Navajo loom and mechanized jacquard machine, Cody recombines traditional patterns into sophisticated geometric overlays and haptic color schemes that bridge traditional and contemporary vernaculars. “I’m a child of ’80s video game culture: Pac-Man, Frogger, Nintendo,” Melissa points out, “I grew up with this world of pixilation.” Cody approaches weaving as ever-evolving craft tradition and art form.

Melissa Cody’s work has been featured in many museums and galleries, such as: the Stark Museum of Art (2014, Orange, Texas); Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Institute of American Indian Arts (2017–2018, Santa Fe); Ingham Chapman Gallery, University of New Mexico (2018, Albuquerque); Navajo Nation Museum (2018); SITE (2018–2019, Santa Fe); MASS Gallery (2019, Austin); Heard Museum (2019, Phoenix); Exploratorium (2019, San Francisco); Museum of Northern Arizona (2019, Flagstaff); Rebecca Camacho Presents (2019, San Francisco); National Gallery of Canada (2019–2020, Ottawa); Hammer Museum (2023, Los Angeles), Museum of Art of São Paulo (MASP) (2024, São Paulo, Brazil), and MoMA PS1 (2024, Queens, NY). Cody’s works are featured in the collections of many museums, including the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; the Heard Museum; the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; the Museu de Arte de São Paulo; the New Britain Museum of American Art; the Palm Springs Art Museum; the Rhode Island School of Design Museum; and the Stark Museum of Art.