Melissa S. Cody

Born 1983 in No Water Mesa, Arizona, Melissa S. Cody is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation. In 2007, Cody 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, she creates tapestries that draw on the tradition of Germantown Revival, a stylistic movement that emerged from the Long Walk or Hwéeldi, the forced migration and ethnic cleansing of Navajo people by the US Federal Government in the late nineteenth century. 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. Her work carries that balance of tradition, history and contemporaneity forward. Working on both a traditional Navajo loom and mechanized jacquard machine, she 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,” she points out. “I grew up with this world of pixilation.” Cody approaches weaving as an ever-evolving craft tradition and art form.

www.garthgreenan.com/artists/melissa-cody | @codyedgewater

My mother, Lola S. Cody, was my first weaving instructor and taught me how to weave at the age of four. Growing up, I watched my mother, aunts and grandmothers weave as a means to sustain our households and as an outlet for their creativity to thrive. My aunt, Marilou Schultz, and my grandmother, Martha Gorman Schultz, showed me that I could integrate my own personal style into each piece that I created, pushing the boundaries of Navajo weaving by incorporating modern influences into traditional patterns. I’ve been weaving for almost 40 years, and it constantly reinforces the connection that I have to my tribal community and cultural traditions. I intend to pass the decades of knowledge I have from my relatives and ancestors to my children, with the hopes that they become the fifth generation in our lineage of Edgewater Clan weavers.

Melissa S. Cody, Dopamine Regression, 2010. Wool warp, weft, selvedge cords and aniline dyes, 72 × 56 inches. Photo courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery.

Melissa S. Cody, Under the Cover of Webbed Skies, 2021. Wool warp, selvedge cords and aniline dyes, 36 3/4 x 25 1/4 inches. Photo courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery.