"Code 0233" from the collection of Black Art Today Inc.

"Code 0233"

mixed media on wooden panel

18 x 18 in

$500

Location: The Bearman Gallery at the Frederick Douglass–Isaac Myers Museum (1417 Thames Street, Fells Point, Baltimore, MD)

Code 0233

Code 0233 functions as both portrait and transmission. Drawing from Morse code as methodology—communication under constraint—the work treats dots, dashes, pauses, and silence as carriers of meaning. Referencing Nina Simone, the figure is rendered through interruption rather than spectacle, honoring a lineage of truth-telling where clarity often had to be coded. The work invites the viewer to slow down, listen differently, and receive what is revealed through restraint.

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About the artist

Nicole Brooks

African American

b. 1975

Nikki Brooks is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, and educator whose work transforms space into immersive, communal havens for reflection, dialogue, and discovery. Through a sophisticated fusion of installation, assemblage, and collage, Brooks creates layered “3-D collages” that invite viewers to step into the narrative rather than simply observe it. Her practice is rooted in truth-telling, drawing on digital media, painting, sculpted text, and found materials to reveal the deeper meanings that exist beneath surface aesthetics.

Born in Brooklyn and raised in Virginia, Brooks approaches art as a vessel for inquiry, memory, and social engagement. Influenced by the conceptual rigor of artists such as Fred Wilson and Adrian Piper, she creates work that functions like a kind of Pandora’s box—uncovering lived experience, cultural memory, and the tensions embedded within history and contemporary life. Whether working in two dimensions or three, she uses visual language to encourage active participation with themes of social justice, identity, ancestry, and collective care.

Her expansive artistic perspective is grounded in a strong academic and cultural foundation. Brooks holds a B.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University, including studies in Florence, Italy, and an M.F.A. in Studio Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Her residencies at Montpelier Mansion and the Greenbelt Community Center deepened her engagement with the layered histories of Prince George’s County and helped inform public-facing works such as The Guardians of Legacy, Honor, and Community in Annapolis.

As both an artist and activist, Brooks uses her platform to confront issues surrounding racial equity, cost of living, identity, and belonging, including the affirmation of LGBTQIA+ communities. Her curatorial projects, including Cost of Living at Dupont Underground and We Were Always Here at Studio Gallery DC, are designed as intentional spaces for communal reflection and courageous conversation. In 2026, she was selected as a member of the Black Art Today Foundation Artist Cohort, further distinguishing her as an artist deeply invested in contemporary Black visual culture and community-centered practice.

Brooks’s commitment to education is equally central to her practice. Her teaching career spans Prince George’s County Public Schools, the Banneker-Douglass Museum, and faculty appointments at Bowie State University and MICA. For the 2025–2026 school year, she was named one of two recipients of the Educator as a Practicing Artist Award for the state of Maryland, an honor that recognizes her exceptional ability to sustain a vital studio practice while profoundly impacting students through arts education.

Through every mural, exhibition, installation, and workshop, Nikki Brooks affirms the transformative power of art to provoke thought, inspire systemic change, and foster meaningful human connection.