1983
Born in No Water Mesa, Navajo Nation, Arizona
Enrolled Member of the Navajo Nation
Lives and works in Los Angeles, California
EDUCATION
2007
Institute of American Indian Arts
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017
Future Tradition: Melissa Cody, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston, Texas, February 3–May 28
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2007–2008
Family Ties: Young Navajo Weavers, Heard Museum West, Surprise, Arizona, September 8, 2007–March 30,
2010
Turning Point: Navajo Weaving in the Late 20th Century, Cooper Gallery, University of Nebraska State Museum, Lincoln, Nebraska, October 1–November 30
2012
Messengers 2012, Rainmaker Gallery, Bristol, United Kingdom, June 13–July 25
2014
Navajo Weaving: Tradition and Trade, Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas, February 8–July 12
2017–2018
Connective Tissue: New Approaches to Fiber in Contemporary Native Art, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico, July 7, 2017–January 21, 2018
2018
Edgewater Reflections, Ingham Chapman Gallery, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, January 22–February 27
Footprints Forward: Navajo Contemporary Artists Post-1868, Navajo Nation Museum, Window Rock, Arizona, October 26–December
2018–2019
SITElines.2018: Casa Tomada, SITE Santa Fe, August 3, 2018–January 6, 2019
2019
Interwoven, MASS Gallery, Austin, Texas, January 25–March 2
Self, Made, Exploratorium, San Francisco, California, May 23–September 2
Artists for a New Era: Nine 4 Ninety, Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, Arizona, June 23–October 13
Heritage, Rebecca Camacho Presents, San Francisco, California, October 4–November 9
2019–2020
Àbadakone | Continuous Fire | Feu continuel, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, November 8, 2019–October 4, 2020
2019–2022
Color Riot! How Color Changed Navajo Textiles, Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona, April 5–September 2, 2019; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, December 19, 2020–March 14, 2021; Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey, September 10, 2021–January 2, 2022
2021
Crafting America, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, February 6–May 31
2022
Water, Wind, Breath: Southwest Native Art in Community, Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February 20–May 15
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS AND CATALOGUES
Besaw, Mindy N., Candice Hopkin, Manuela Well-Off-Man, eds. Art for a New Understanding. Fayetteville, Arkansas: University of Arkansas Press, 2018.
Site Santa Fe. SITElines 2018: Casa Tomada. Santa Fe: SITE Santa Fe, 2018.
Webster, Laurie D, D. Y. Begay, Lynda Teller Pete, and Louise Stiver. Navajo Textiles: The Crane Collection at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Denver: University Press of Colorado, 2017.
Well-Off-Man, Manuela, ed. Connective Tissue: New Approaches to Fiber in Contemporary Native Art. Santa Fe: Art Guild Press, 2017.
Wertz, Jay. The Native American Experience. New York: Metro Books, 2012.
Williams, Lucy Fowler, ed. Water, Wind, Breath: Southwest Native Art in the Barnes Foundation. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022.
PERIODICALS
“2017 SWAIA Report: Melissa Cody (Navajo)” Native American Art Magazine, October/November 2017: 130.
Art in America 107, no. 2 (2019): cover.
“Contemporary Tissue.” Native American Art Magazine, October/November 2017: 68.
Durón, Maximilíano and Alex Greenberger. “L.A. Artists to Watch: Melissa Cody.” Art News 117, no. 4 (2019): 97.
———. “15 Los Angeles Artists to Watch.” ARTnews, January 9, 2019.
Durón, Maximilíano. “The Best Booths at ADAA’s 2021 Art Show, From Vodou Flags to Tour-de-Force Abstraction.” ARTnews, November 4, 2021.
———. “United States Artists Fellowships Go to Olu Oguibe, Melissa Cody, American Artist, Lonnie Holley, and More.” ARTnews, January 26, 2022.
“Future Tradition.” Native American Art Magazine 7, February/March 2017: 118–122.
Green, Christopher. “Beyond Inclusion.” Art in America 107, no. 2 (2019): 72–77.
Gussie, Fauntleroy. “Groundbreakers: Moving On.” Native Peoples Magazine 23, no. 1, 2010: 36–41.
Joyce, Erin. “The Hits and Misses of Santa Fe’s Much-Anticipated SITE Biennial.” Hyperallergic, October 9, 2018.
Levin, Jennifer. “Weaving Modern Stories: Melissa Cody.” Santa Fe New Mexican, August 3, 2018.
Lopez, Antonio. “Focus Artists: Meet Three Artists Whose Careers You Should Follow.” Southwest Art 30, no. 3 (2000): 166–168.
Lovelace, Joyce. “Clear Focus.” American Craft 75, no. 4 (2015): 66–73.
Mena, Diego Jesus Bartesaghi. “‘Color Riot’ — A vibrant look at Navajo resilience, at Montclair Art Museum.” Montclair Local, October 9, 2021.
Moreno, Gean. “SITElines 2018.” Art in America 106, no. 10, 2018: 103–104.
Nixon, Lindsay. “Indigenous Art Is So Camp.” Canadianart, November 21, 2019.
Rana, Matthew. “Immigration and Colonization: Grappling with Past and Present New Mexico.” Frieze, September 17, 2018.
Ryckman, Tatiana. “Sing the Body Non-Electric: INTERWOVEN at MASS Gallery, Austin.” Glasstire, February 18, 2019.
“Shows to See.” American Craft 77, no 1 (2017): 22–23.
Vanzalen, Jessica. “Weaver Melissa Cody on Native Rugs, New Style, and the Heard’s 53rd Annual Indian Market.” Phoenix New Times, March 3, 2011.
“What Made America.” Native American Art Magazine, April/May 2021.
Williams, Maxwell. “Reweaving History.” LALA (Spring 2019).