“Cellblock Visions 2009: Prison Art in America,” an exhibition of drawings, paintings and objects made by men and women inmates of jails and penitentiaries in six states, will be featured in the University of Arkansas’ Fine Arts Center Gallery September 21 – October 16, 2009. The exhibition curator, Phyllis Kornfeld, will be on campus to present a lecture surveying prison art in America on Thursday, October 15 at 7:00 pm in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall, located in the Fine Arts Center. On Friday, October 16 Ms. Kornfeld will present a Gallery Talk at 2:00 pm in the Fine Arts Center Gallery. Both events are free and open to the public.
The exhibition includes art forms typically created by prisoners, such as handkerchief art and decorated envelopes, as well as more traditionally executed paintings and drawings by these mostly self-taught artists. Also featured are examples of prison ‘folk arts’ such as soap carvings and toilet paper sculpture. “These artists tell the truth, without self-consciousness, unfettered by concepts and theory. This pure expression of individual personality has produced a wide variety of styles and imagery, and at the same time, the commonalities of their imprisonment color every piece.”
Phyllis Kornfeld is the author of Cellblock Visions: Prison Art in America. She has been conducting visual arts programs with incarcerated men and women for twenty-five years – from county jail to death row – in eighteen institutions in seven states. She also has a website, www.cellblockvisions.com.