Illuminating the Darkness: Our Carceral Landscape

Illuminating the Darkness: Our Carceral Landscape

Aug. 27 – Oct. 1, 2020 | UCF Art Gallery

Apr. 5 – 16, 2022 | Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts

Apr. 2 – 15, 2023 | Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts

Although there are over 2.3 million people currently incarcerated in the United States, the prison system remains largely invisible to the majority of Americans. Prisons tend to be built in rural areas, out-of-view and away from the daily lives of many. The physical and psychological marginalization and minoritization of system-impacted people allows us to ignore mass incarceration, even though it is among the most crucial issues of our time. Illuminating the Darkness: Our Carceral Landscape seeks to shine a light on the effects of incarceration on the lives of Americans. The culmination of a two-year project that brought contemporary artists to Central Florida to participate in a series of discussions with incarcerated students enrolled in classes as part of the Florida Prison Education Project, this exhibition brings together a diverse selection of work made by twenty-five artists from around the world. Whether in sculpture and installation, drawing and painting, video and photography, printmaking and book arts, the collected works explore slavery and freedom, despair and hope, oppression and the immutability of the human spirit.