Inside / Outside
Opening Reception: Saturday, December 5, 2026
MoCA\CT presents Inside/Outside, three thematically related exhibitions exploring the physical and emotional walls of incarceration: Jesse Krimes: Elegy Quilts, the Annual Prison Art Show, and Veronica May Clark: Singing Inside a Glass of Water, on view from Saturday, December 5, 2026, to Sunday, March 14, 2027. Creativity has the power to transform the way we see ourselves and others. Through Inside/Outside and accompanying programs MoCA\CT bridges the divide between those inside prison walls and those outside—the broader public, promoting mutual understanding and community healing.
The entrance Gallery displays Jesse Krimes: Elegy Quilts, featuring selections from an ongoing series (2020–present) by the Pennsylvania-based artist. Organized by The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) in Philadelphia, the traveling exhibition is curated by Kelly Shindler, FWM Executive Director, with Hilde Nelson, FWM Curatorial Fellow.
Drawing on his own experience of imprisonment, Krimes transforms firsthand accounts of incarceration into portraits of home and memory. He reassembles donated clothing and textiles from currently and formerly incarcerated individuals into intricately patterned quilts. Rooted in the collective tradition of American quilt-making, these domestic scenes function as communal acts of preservation, carrying narratives of loss, resilience, and connection. Through correspondence and collaboration, participants shared memories of home with the artist and selected symbolic animal figures to represent themselves, resulting in quilts that serve as tactile archives of longing, estrangement, and reintegration.
Krimes titles his quilts after U.S. prisons to reflect the scale of mass incarceration, while the imagery centers intimate, personal narratives. In Marion, for example, an empty chair and discarded boots evoke the absent, incarcerated sitter, who longingly recalls meditating in the woods behind his home. His animal avatar, a crane symbolizing freedom, poses against the tall trees—offering a quiet, human counterpoint to the dehumanizing conditions of the carceral system.
Collaboration remains central to Krimes’s practice. His newest work, Riverside, developed through workshops with young adults in Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Restorative Justice Program, shifts focus from their past struggles to their future aspirations. Synthesizing their ideas, Krimes conveys a sense of promise through his composition: a hand brandishes a flaming pen, an owl perches on a bathtub rim, and a verdant tree grows in a domestic space.
Krimes’s own story paints a portrait of resilience. After receiving his BA in studio art from Millersville University, he served a six-year federal prison sentence. During that time, he produced monumental art by ingeniously utilizing prison-issued bars of soap, bedsheets, hair-gel, prison-issued markers, and contraband pencils. He smuggled his art out while also organizing arts programs and co-founding multiracial creative collectives among incarcerated peers.
Upon returning to family and society, Krimes founded the Center for Art and Advocacy, where he serves as Executive Director and leads a national fellowship supporting formerly incarcerated artists. Extending his advocacy beyond the arts, he led a successful class-action lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase addressing predatory fees imposed on formerly incarcerated individuals. Art and Krimes by Krimes, an Emmy Award–winning documentary directed by Alysa Nahmias (2021), examines flaws in the criminal justice system.
Krimes has exhibited internationally at institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA PS1, the Palais de Tokyo, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, Creative Capital, Rauschenberg Foundation, and the Art for Justice Fund. His work is held in major collections including the Brooklyn Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Below:
(L) Jesse Krimes, Red Eagle, antique quilt, used clothing collected from incarcerated people, assorted textiles, 2020; private collection.
(R) Jesse Krimes, Redwing, antique quilt, used clothing collected from incarcerated people, assorted textiles, 2021; The Collection of Timothy and Stephanie Ingrassia.
