Acclaimed ReflectSpace gallery is launching its first exhibit exploring issues around the criminal justice system in the U.S. Titled, Incarceration Nation: the US Prison Industrial Complex, the artwork aims to highlight the prison industrial complex and brings together works by contemporary artists, collaborations, archives, prisoner-made art, and technology to speak to these statistics in unexpected ways. The Gallery is located inside the Glendale Downtown Central Library.
Incarceration Nation at ReflectSpace runs from December 14, 2018 to February 10, 2019. The opening reception will be from 7-9 pm on December 14, 2018. The exhibit is co-curated by Ara and Anahid Oshagan.
About the U.S. Prison System
The statistics of the U.S. prison system are staggering. While the U.S. has 4.4% of the world’s population, the prison system houses 22% of the world’s prisoners. It is by far the highest of any industrialized nation in the world—5 times higher than Canada and Europe and 4 times higher than Mexico. On any given day nearly 2.3 million people are held in more than 6,000 incarceration facilities across the country. That comes to 1 in every 100 adults. The cost of all this to taxpayers: nearly $80 billion per year.
About the Exhibition
Touching on issues as diverse as prison geography and prisoner-made portraits, letters and images from inside, art by the formerly incarcerated, resistance-art and virtual reality (VR) installation, the exhibit subverts normative behind-the-prison-bars imagery to bring a more nuanced and collaborative consideration of the cost of our massive and brutal Prison Industrial Complex.
Artists in Incarceration Nation: Josh Begley, Alyse Emdur, Ara Oshagan, Shiela Pinkel, Mark Strandquist, Jack L. Morris and David Williams. Also on display will be a virtual reality experience of incarceration produced in collaboration with teens in juvenile hall.
The opening reception is on Friday, December 14 from 7 - 9 p.m.
Incarceration panel and film showing of “The Squires of San Quentin” led by filmmaker John McDonald on Thursday, January 17 at 7 p.m.