Artistry Liberated: FIA Exhibition Spotlights Incarcerated Artists

This exhibition is a collective statement of resistance to erasure and dehumanization. In these drawings, paintings, and sculptures made with paper and simple materials, artists use creative methods to expose the harsh realities of incarceration and imagine life beyond prison. Beyond Survival reveals a longing for home and family, joy and beauty, connections to nature, flights of the imagination, and journeys toward freedom. These acts of creation—carried out in confined spaces with limited materials—are a form of truth-telling and liberation, made despite and in direct response to these conditions.

The United States owns the highest incarceration rate in the world, with approximately 33,000 people currently in Michigan prisons. This exhibition offers a moving testament to the resilience, creativity, and humanity of people behind bars. Produced over the last 27 years with the support of PCAP’s Annual Exhibitions of Artists in Michigan Prisons, this collection of works is guest curated by co-founder of the PCAP Exhibitions, Janie Paul and the Michigan Justice Fund team, and organized by the FIA. Ms. Paul is also author of the book Making Art in Prison: Survival and Resistance, which will be available for purchase in the FIA Museum Shop.

Explains Janie Paul: “The work in this exhibit is important for what it reveals about the humanity and talent of incarcerated people; and that ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances can become artists; can mobilize artistic capacities for expanding and strengthening their lives.”

“The Beyond Survival exhibition allows us to confront the realities of an over-relied upon criminal legal system,” said Ashley Carter, Director of the Michigan Justice Fund, “while dreaming of the more equitable and just world we believe is possible beyond jails and prisons.”

FIA Director and Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, Sarah Kohn adds “It was a wonderful opportunity to work on an exhibition as unique and substantive as Beyond Survival. We are pleased and excited to help bring this exhibition to life, and to share in its presentation with our partners at the Michigan Justice Fund and the Prison Creative Arts Project.”

The Flint Institute of Arts is open 7 days a week, Monday through Thursday and Saturday from 10a – 5p, Friday from 10a – 8p, and Sunday from 1p – 5p. Admission is free every day for Genesee County residents through the Genesee County Arts, Education, and Cultural Enrichment Millage. Admission is free for all on Saturdays thanks to Huntington Bank. Learn more at flintarts.org.

Beyond Survival: Works on Paper by Artists Incarcerated in Michigan

May 30 – September 14, 2025

FIA Graphics Gallery

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