Avis Charley (Spirit Lake Dakota/Diné) is a mother and an artist. She was born and raised in Los Angeles. Charley is a painter and a ledger artist using colored pencils on antique documents. She enjoys depicting Native empowerment using the female form as her main subject. Charley relishes in bringing attention to and celebrating the evolution of the Native identity, from pre-reservation period to present day, from ancestral homelands to city life. Charley is a graduate from the Institute of American Indian Arts and currently resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Avis is nominated by Museum of Contemporary Native Arts to represent the United States. Each year IFAM collaborates with six neighboring institutions to uplift our shared cultural values and U.S.-based folk artists.