Coady Brown: Suitor

Nazarian / Curcio is pleased to present Suitor, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Coady Brown. This is Brown’s third solo exhibition with the gallery.

In Suitor, Brown examines the emotionally complex rituals of romantic pursuit, focusing on figures caught in moments of anticipation, reflection, and longing. These scenes unfold in transitional spaces—bedrooms, doorways, street corners, and bars—where vulnerability meets the gaze of the outside world. Through gesture, atmosphere, and symbolic detail, Brown creates intimate compositions that reflect the quiet choreography of courtship, where desire, rejection, and self-discovery coexist in fragile tension.

At the heart of the exhibition is the figure of the suitor, drawn from the Latin secutor, meaning one who follows or pursues. Traditionally gendered and associated with authority, seriousness, and intentionality, the suitor is often viewed through a masculine lens. Brown reimagines this archetype not as fixed or singular, but as a fluid presence defined by the act of seeking. Here, pursuit becomes a metaphor not only for romantic longing but also for the artistic process, where repetition, vulnerability, and uncertainty drive a search for meaning that resists resolution.

Masculinity in Suitor is approached as a broader, constructed language, one that can be adopted, stretched, or softened. Gender is understood as mutable and performative, shaped by expression, context, and self-presentation. Through an emphasis on suiting, Brown underscores clothing as both concealment and revelation, an amplifier of one’s desired form. Suits, robes, and layered garments allow the figures to shift between strength and softness, authority and intimacy. A jacket draped over another’s shoulders becomes a tender gesture, at once protective and affectionate, revealing how masculinity, often assumed to be rigid, can hold space for care and emotional clarity.

Light and color carry emotional weight throughout the exhibition. In Poison Heart, magenta neon envelops the figures, intensifying their proximity. The fading light in Raincheck evokes quiet resignation. In Night Bloom, moonlight illuminates an embrace as a red flower blossoms nearby, signaling the emergence of an interior world.

Floral motifs weave through the exhibition, their symbolism shifting with each appearance. From the innocence of a boutonniere to the theatrical excess of an extravagant bouquet, flowers become markers of emotional evolution—gestures of care, apology, seduction, and grief. As surrogates for what remains unspoken, they chart the changing stakes of each encounter.

While Brown’s earlier work often captured the energy of collective experience, Suitor turns inward—toward solitude, intimacy, and the quiet choreography of private encounters. Here, the figure of the suitor becomes an extended metaphor: at once outdated, overly romantic, even patriarchal, yet also enduring in its restless search for meaning. In this body of work, the suitor is less a romantic figure than a stand-in for the artist—a seeker driven by uncertainty, vulnerability, and the desire for connection. Just as the suitor risks rejection in pursuit of affection, the painter takes chances in pursuit of expression, assembling images in the hope of finding something honest, if unresolved. Brown reminds us that to paint is to believe in the possibility of meaning—not through resolution, but through the continued act of reaching.

Coady Brown 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; Albertz Benda, 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, Whitewall, 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.