Coady Brown’s paintings examine how groups, couples, and solitary figures navigate self-presentation in private and public life. Often situated within the drama and darkness of nightlife, Brown’s paintings explore the nuances of moving through the world in a feminized body. Figures are often compressed into tightly framed, intimate spaces that expose the subtle complexities of our interpersonal connections and relationships.

Drawing from varied source material—including canonical portraiture, art history, fashion, film, and everyday experiences—Brown orchestrates psychologically charged environments that pulse with a sense of mystery and wonder. Through attention to lighting, vibrant clothing, and high-contrast colors, Brown’s figures’ inscrutable expressions hint at an unknowable and autonomous selfhood, conjuring a precise instant within a specific and stylized world.

Coady Brown (b. 1990, lives and works in Philadelphia, PA) is a painter from Baltimore, MD. She received her MFA from Yale University in 2016, and her BFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University in 2012. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally with Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles, CA; Stems Gallery, Brussels, Belgium; 1969 Gallery, New York, NY; Taymour Grahne, London, England; and Francois Ghebaly, New York, NY; among others. She is the recipient of several fellowships and residencies including Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Madison, ME; The Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA; Fountainhead, Miami, FL; Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT; and the Yale/Norfolk School of Art, Norfolk, CT. Her work has been written about in The New York Times, The Village Voice, Juxtapoz, Variable West, and New American Painting.

Brown’s works are in the permanent collections of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL, the Columbus Museum of Art, OH, and the X Museum, Beijing, China.