Joe Brainard (March 11, 1942 – May 25, 1994) was an American artist and writer associated with the New York School. His prodigious and innovative body of work included assemblages, collages, drawing, and painting, as well as designs for book and album covers, theatrical sets and costumes. In particular, Brainard broke new ground in using comics as a poetic medium in his collaborations with other New York School poets.

Joe Brainard’s visual art is often situated in the ephemeral; he engaged popular culture with wit as well as a classical attention to light. His work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, the Corcoran Gallery or the Tibor de Nagy Gallery. Brainard published more than a dozen books, including the lyrical prose-poem memoir series I Remember (1975) and The Nancy Book (2008), which contains 15 years’ worth of his artworks and collaborations incorporating Ernie Bushmiller’s classic comic strip character Nancy.