Edward Arcenio Chavez (1917-1995) was a painter and sculptor in Woodstock, New York. He was born in Ocate, New Mexico, and moved to Colorado with his parents and nine siblings when he was five years old. After being encouraged by his high school art teacher to pursue art after graduation, Chavez became an apprentice to artist Frank Mechau and attended the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. During this time he participated in the New York World's Art of America Exhibition in 1937 and began painting murals for the Works Progress Administration under the Federal Works Agency. After serving as a war art correspondent during World War II, Chavez settled in Woodstock, N.Y. where he established his studio.
Over the course of his career, Chavez was awarded the Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant, a Fulbright Grant, the Childe Hassam Institute of Arts and Letters Award among others. He taught at the Art Students League of New York, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Syracuse University, Dutchess Community College, and was artist-in-residence at Utah City Schools and the Huntington Museum of Art in West Virginia. Chavez's work has been exhibited throughout the United States and is in numerous museum collections such as the Library of Congress, Museum of Modern Art, and Hirshhorn Museum.