Often situated within the drama and darkness of nightlife, Coady Brown’s paintings explore the nuances of moving through the world in a feminized body. Figures rendered with geometric exaggeration assertively dominate the picture plane, brazen in their presence and visibility. Through attention to lighting, vibrant clothing, and high-contrast colors, their inscrutable expressions hint at an unknowable and autonomous selfhood.

Developed from an imagined disco in the ‘70s, this new series of paintings explores the transformative power of the feminine. Applying the feminine as a vehicle for disguise, power, and expression, Brown orchestrates psychologically charged moments that pulse with a sense of mystery and wonder.

“Self-expression is the freedom we give ourselves, the permission to take up space and exist boldly. Clothing, hair, makeup, and accessories empower the figure to express, explore, and possess the freedom to infinitely expand their sense of self.” — Coady Brown

Modeled after a photograph of the artist’s mother in 1973, Devotion imagines an almost cult-like figure. Her long hair and face dappled in the light of the disco, she appears benevolent as she draws the viewer in with her radiant glow. Her beauty, however, recalls the appearances of the women of the Manson family and Symbionese Liberation Army. Sweet and wholesome, their feminine image stood in stark contrast to the subsequent horrors they would later go on to commit.

With the overturning of Roe V. Wade, Brown reflects on what it must have been like to be a young woman at the time of the original court ruling—when the cultural revolution held the promise of sustained momentum toward liberation, despite having its own dark moments. She shares, “This work has allowed me to reimagine that time and space of possibility, which seems so far from our present. A time when being a woman was a symbol of political significance. How just existing within the feminine held power and autonomy.”