Nancy Brooks Brody at Fortnight Institute / NY

Nancy Brooks Brody
Book Marks

April 12 - May 6, 2018

F O R T N I G H T I N S T I T U T E
60 East 4th St. NYC












All images are Courtesy of Fortnight Institute.


Fortnight Institute is pleased to present, Book Marks, a solo exhibition by New York artist, Nancy Brooks Brody. Brody's bright, colorful, bold paintings are a buoyant presence after a long grey winter. In the current landscape of digital dissemination, the display of hand-crafted, individually painted bookmarks feels progressive and explicit. Books are learning tools, bound recordings of experiences; bookmarks track location, mark time, space, and hold place.

Brody's Book Marks both measure and divide space, suggesting bodies, rhythm, and other nonlinguistic communication systems. Despite the distinct formal structure inherent in each work, there is a fluidity among them: between colors, shapes and intricate lines. The colors are intuitive relationships, each one leading to the next: middle grey, citrus, mescaline, jaws, mt. everest, sand, dolphin blue, jade, ballet slipper, gumdrop, apricot and sea glass. Thoughtful observation of the work reveals the artist’s systematic approach to each piece: no recurring compositions of color can be found across the 100 Book Marks installed within the gallery.

As with her Book Marks, Brody's meticulous skillfulness is present within all of her work, including her embedded geometric abstractions, called Color Forms, which utilize architecture, construction and line. In contrast to the embedded work, however, the Book Marks offer accessibility – another mainstay and core value of her practice. Brody's Book Marks measure 9 x 1 1/2 inches and are handpainted using enamel on 300 lb cotton paper — signed on verso. Each Book Mark is both an object to be framed, displayed, or carried and used as a functional tool. In either case, affordability is central to its premise and stands as a sign of political access. They hold space individually or can be arranged in sets or groups, which can be determined by the viewer.

Nancy Brooks Brody (b. 1962 in New York, NY) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.