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Art made in prisons has enjoyed heightened visibility in recent years with several major exhibitions helping to drive the national conversation about both the art itself and the context of its creation — mass incarceration. The following exhibitions are the ideal starting points for wading into the complexity of the current prison art landscape.
MARKING TIME: ART IN THE AGE OF MASS INCARCERATION
This landmark exhibition curated by NYU Professor, Dr. Nicole Fleetwood, has been described by the New York Times as “one of the most important art moments of 2020.” Fleetwood’s book of the same name has won the National Book Critics Award in Criticism, the John Hope Franklin Publication Prize, the Susanne M. Glasscock Humanities Book Prize for Interdisciplinary Scholarship the Charles Rufus Morey Book Award in art history and the Frank Jewett Mather Award in art criticism.
NO JUSTICE WITHOUT LOVE
In the words of its sponsoring organization, the Ford Foundation, No Justice Without Love “presents the ways in which artists and advocates create new aesthetics around humanity, resilience, and self-determination, while elevating themes of redemption, rehabilitation, and transformation.” Through its affiliation with the Art For Justice Fund, the exhibition seeks to change the narrative around mass incarceration and disrupt the criminal justice system.