The Pickup's Arts & Culture coverage is sponsored by Brut Hotel.
Down the street from The Church Studio, there’s a small art gallery that’s unlike most in town. The pieces in here are drawn or painted by someone who is currently or recently incarcerated.
That’s a big step forward, says Wendy Jason. Jason is the Founding Director of JustArts Gallery, a not-for-profit art space whose sole purpose is to display the work of these incarcerated artists. “It’s really easy, when we’re talking about the art world, to forget about this massive population,” she says. Jason’s quest with this gallery is to extend the art world’s accessibility to these prisoners, who, she finds, are enthusiastic, talented, kind, and excited to contribute.
Its current exhibition, “Drawing Parallels,” is a collaborative show between artists on the outside and those currently incarcerated. Take, for example, Tulsan Jamie Pierson, who creates urban art under the name Scraps Designs, and Sean White, an incarcerated artist who makes figurative and modern work.
“[Sean] White’s work focuses a lot on the physical form, on the human form,” says Pierson. “Mine focuses on the urban environment. But we both take similar approaches to mid century modernism, like very simplified lines and basic shapes.” Pierson and White’s collaborative piece blends White’s drawing of a humanoid or mannequin form, torn into four separate sheets of paper, overlaid onto a wood board over which Pierson creates an abstract.