Artist's Statement

My women are minimal and austere, yet sensual. They reflect my fascination with gesture and stance. They are rhythmic and linear. The women are strong and rooted, with large feet so they can stand without bases. The heads are small and impersonal allowing the viewer to focus on the gesture not the person. They suggest the figure rather than follow correct anatomy. And they are made in series so one figure’s gesture reinforces the next one’s; negative space and rhythmic line imply dance and dialog.

Some women protect, some gesture in their dialog, others reach out into space, and all stand tall and strong. They represent the tree of life. Together they form a forest of women. They are iconic and symbolic.

The environment created with the figures and the stones–both real and of clay–suggests the natural world, riverbed, forest, fertility figure, generations and women warriors and refugees. It is a forest of women gesturing, swaying, standing tall. Stones link the figures and make a whole of the not-so-disparate parts. Stones define the watercourse, water--source o flife. Stones are over 100 torsos mixed in among Mexican black river stones like those I found at temples in Japan. The installation reflects the colors and severe landscape of my childhood in the desert of Arizona.

Each figure is unique created with hand colored, hand mixed cement formed/applied directly onto the metal armature in layers. Each stone is also unique--hand made, stoneware clays colored with oxides, then fired.

Jo-Ann Brody

Solo Exhibitions

2007  Sticks and Stones, CeresGallery, New York, NY.        

Clusters, an installation, The Arts Exchange, White Plains, NY.

2005  Boxes& Foxes: Surface & Stance, Maxwell Fine Arts, Peekskill, NY.

2004 Multiples,Ceres Gallery, New York, NY.

2003  Woman Forms, Ceres Gallery, New York, NY.

2002  Speaking Figuratively, (with Don Keene) Maxwell Fine Arts, Peekskill, NY.
Beauties, Beasts & Other Imaginary Beings, (with Allen Hart & Maja Kihlstedt) Westchester Community College ArtGallery, Valhalla NY.
Sculpture Installation, Di Santi Plaza, Curator Leslie Scheiblberg, Hartsdale, NY.

2000  GalleryZogei, (with Lisa Bresnak) Kyoto, Japan. 

1999  Fuguesin Cement, OpenStudios, Westchester Art Council, White Plains, NY.
Figures in Cement & Clay, Invitational Series, Belle Levine Arts Center, Mahopac, NY.

Selected Group Shows

2008  Visibleand Invisible Spaces,curated by Jennifer Heath, a traveling exhibition
10 x 10 x 10, tenartists from ten river towns, ten storefronts, Ellensville NY

2007  OutdoorSculpture Shows,Collaborative Concepts and the Studio, Garrison NY & Armonk NY      
10 x 10 x 10 ,10artists, 10 storefronts, 10 communities, curated by Judy Sigunick, Ellenville, NY

2006  Collaborative Concepts at Saunder’s Farm, 35 artists and a 100acre farm, Garrison,NY.
Conversations,Maxwell Fine Arts Sculpture Garden, Peekskill, NY.
Windows to the Soul,Blue Door Gallery, Yonkers Public Library, Yonkers, NY.

2005  WinterSolstice, TheStudio, White Plains and Armonk, NY.
Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art: A benefit auction of significantworks, Robert MillerGallery, NY, NY.
Hold the Line, Peekskill Project, site-specific sculptural installation, Peekskill, NY.

2004  Art at War, The Artist’s Voice. Aldo Castillo Gallery, Chicago IL.
The Third Biennial Women Book Artists Exhibition, Theresa Prator Curator, ConverseCollege, Spartanburg, SC.

2003  Art in Nishijin, Kyoto, Japan.
Women of the Book: Jewish Artists, Jewish Themes–Wordson  Fire, Starr Gallery, Newton, MA.
Small Works,A.I.R. Gallery, NY, NY