Undoing the Carceral State

A visual protest against injustice

October 2024 – January 2025

Undoing the Carceral State is an exhibition organized by currently incarcerated artist and scholar, Joseph Dole. As a recipient of an IL Humanities grant, Dole commissioned 14 other incarcerated artists to make new works explaining the contexts and conditions of incarcerations. The artists developed stunning responses that use popular graphics, metaphor and humor to examine the economics of incarceration, how new laws impact their lives, toxic conditions of prisons and the ways that families endure the effects of incarceration. While the art works depict the deep pain and harm incarceration creates, the act of taking up these issues, making them visible and educating the public about prisons and policing, from inside a prison cell, represents the resistance to being warehoused and disappeared.

Curated by: Joe Dole

Exhibition Artists: Joseph Dole, Juan Luna, William Jones, Darrell Fair, Christian Noel, Don Juan Rios, Ernesto Valle, Kenneth Key, Christopher Everett, Luis Trevino, Robert Curry

Gallery Essay by: Ben Austen see here

Gallery Guide by Joe Dole, Seth Perry and Isabell Padilla Bonelli see here

Reckless Law, Shameless Order

An Intimate Experience of Incarceration

June 21, 2024 – October 2024

Reckless Law, Shameful Order is an exhibition of artworks created in workshops where formerly incarcerated artists shared their experiences of confinement with one another. While these artists were locked up in different countries and under different political regimes, their punishments were based on similar ideas of law and order that protect some and criminalize others. Their experiences reveal how American practices of incarceration and punishment have been exported around the globe. Whether they were detained in the notorious Evin prison in Iran, in any of the horrendous prisons run by the state of Illinois or US Immigration & Customs Enforcement, or in the horrific island prisons located off Australian shores, these artists maintained their humanity and ability to care for others despite the conditions they faced. This exhibition offers a view into the personal experience of state policies and practices of punishment.

Curated by: Nasrin Navab

Exhibition Artists: Monica Cosby, Faranak Miraftab, Pablo Mendoza, Imran Mohammad, Nasrin Navab, Ana Navarro, Kenneth Norton, Vincent Robinson, Sarah Ross

Gallery Essay by: Esra Rene see here