The Overlooked Dilemma of Incarcerated Artists
Surface, December 20, 2022: The Overlooked Dilemma of Incarcerated Artists
“In 2010, while Jesse Krimes was serving six years on drug-related charges at the Fairton Federal Correctional Institution in South New Jersey, he was hard at work making his magnum opus. The Pennsylvania native teamed up with prison mates and fellow artists Gilberto Rivera and Jared Owens to form a secret collective, sharing camaraderie and art supplies to help each other create through tough times. All Krimes needed to make art were prison bed sheets that he collaged with newspaper images using hair gel and a spoon to transfer the printed ink onto his canvases. He smuggled the sheets out piecemeal over the course of three years until they culminated in his most ambitious work to date.
“That work, a monumental 15-by-40-foot mural titled Apokaluptein: 16389067 after the Greek word for ‘apocalypse’ coupled with his inmate number, would soon galvanize greater visibility for formerly incarcerated artists. Hailed as both a ‘carceral magnum opus’ and a ‘Hieronymus Bosch–like allegory of heaven, earth, and hell,’ it formed the centerpiece of a landmark MoMA PS1 exhibition organized by MacArthur award-winning historian Nicole Fleetwood about that cross-section of marginalized artists in 2020. It would also become a major focus of ‘Art & Krimes by Krimes,’ a disarming film by MTV Documentary Films streaming on Paramount+.
“Directed by Alysa Nahmias, the film chronicles the making of both Apokaluptein and Krimes’s first five years out of jail as he struggles to reacclimate to everyday life and forge a career in the art world. Nahmias structures the film as a linear biography appropriately infused with an artistic sensibility thanks to animator Molly Schwartz, whose gripping illustrations add another dimension to Krimes’s candid interviews. Viewers follow along as Krimes, faced with scant finances or job opportunities, realizes the towering difficulties faced by former prisoners. Though he makes some missteps, he finds strength from his moral compass—steered in large part by new fatherhood—and the community of artists he met while serving time.”
Additional reading:
