Born in 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 (IAIA) in Santa Fe.

A fourth-generation Navajo weaver, she approaches weaving as an ever-evolving craft tradition and art form. Her intricate tapestries are often associated with the Germantown Revival, a style named after the government wool supplied to the Navajo during the time of the Long Walk. The vivid dyes and new economic pressures prompted enterprising Navajo weavers to adapt, creating bold, new, commercially viable textiles that could sustain them. Her work carries that balance of tradition, history, and contemporaneity forward. Working on a traditional Navajo loom, Cody recombines traditional patterns into sophisticated geometric overlays and haptic color schemes, often integrating disparate visuals from contemporary life.

Cody’s work has been featured at many museums and galleries, including the Stark Museum of Art in Orange, Texas (2014), the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (2017–18), the Ingham Chapman Gallery at University of New Mexico (2018), the Navajo Nation Museum (2018), and SITE Santa Fe (2018–19), among many others.