NEW YORK – Saturday marked the opening of an exhibit on New York’s Governors Island showcasing the artwork of current and former prison inmates across the country. The show features over 200 works from inmates across the United States, and draws attention to the therapeutic value that creating art has for the incarcerated.
15 to Life – Self Portrait by Anthony Papa. Papa took up oil painting in prison, and his popularity as an artist led to his being granted clemency by NY Governor Geogre Pataki in 1996 (Safe Streets Arts.)
Escaping Time: Art From U.S. Prisons runs from August 1 through September 27 at Governors Island, and is a production of the Safe Streets Arts Foundation, which works to market the artworks of inmates. The exhibition is staffed entirely by former prisoners sponsored by Defy Ventures, an organization which provides former convicts with entrepreneurship training.
The exhibit’s curator, Anastasia Voron, described the power of art as an escape to those confined to a jail cell, saying, “Art offers prisoners a new conviction that, although their circumstances may seem inescapable, their memories, experiences, and hopeful dispositions are preserved.”
View From My Cell Bunk by Frederick Benjamin Thompson, one of the works showcased and available for purchase at the exhibition (Anthony Papa.)
The artists featured at the exhibition are using the public attention to draw attention to the issues which led them to prison. Anthony Papa, who served 12 years for a first time, non-violent drug offense and became an activist author following his 1996 release, uses his work to criticize the War on Drugs while also hoping his case can serve as an example to other prisoners.
“Through history, the role of the artist as a social commentator has been invaluable. Art is a great vehicle for expressing views to others in a way that is unmatched in any other media outlet for its truthfulness. Like Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ and Goya’s ‘Third of May,’ which both powerfully portrayed the atrocities of war, my installation follows their lead in revealing the impact of America’s drug war,” he said in an editorial posted the day before the opening of the New York art show.
View of the Hudson River from Sing Song by Anthony Papa (Safe Streets Arts.)
“I hope my story can become a guiding example to other prisoners who are imprisoned that use the arts to survive the experience,” he continued.
The philosophy behind Escaping Time is that art provides the incarcerated with a mental escape from their confinement. The majority of the exhibition’s works are available for sale, with the proceeds directly benefitting the artists, in order to help them transition their talents to the outside world. Each piece is accompanied by a hand-written letter from the artist.
The exhibition’s sponsors are hopeful that, with a growing national discourse on prison reform, Escaping Time will provide amplification to the voices of these artists.
Anthony Papa’s The Drug War displays images created by the artist in prison alongside political discourse criticizing the effects of the War on Drugs on ordinary citizens (Anthony Papa.)
Alongside the artworks, the Governors Island exhibition features quotes and statistics demonstrating the transformative and therapeutic properties of art, as well as videos of John Oliver and President Obama speaking on the subject of prison reform.
The exhibition is open each weekend through the end of September at a former military home bordering Nolan Park on Governors Island.