MoCA\CT Presents Inside/Outside, Exploring Art, Identity, and Incarceration

Inside\Outside opens on December 5, 2026 at MoCA\CT in Westport, CT

Jesse Krimes: Elegy Quilts

CPA Prison Arts Annual Show

Three interconnected exhibitions offer a powerful look at art and perspectives shaped by experiences of incarceration, December 5, 2026–March 14, 2027

WESTPORT, CT, UNITED STATES, October 22, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Museum of Contemporary Art \ Connecticut (MoCA\CT) presents Inside/Outside, three thematically related exhibitions exploring the physical and emotional walls of incarceration: Jesse Krimes: Elegy Quilts, the CPA Prison Arts Annual Show, and Veronica May Clark: Singing Inside a Glass of Water. On view from December 5, 2026, to March 14, 2027, the exhibitions reveal how artistic creation preserves memory, asserts identity, and sustains connection in circumstances that restrict personal agency.

The Opening Reception will be held at MoCA\CT on Saturday, December 5 from 4-6PM.

Through Inside/Outside and accompanying programs, MoCA\CT bridges the divide between those inside prison walls and the broader public, promoting empathy and healing. Together, these exhibitions invite visitors to encounter artists through their work, perspectives, and voices rather than their sentences.

Exhibition Images are available here. ​

Jesse Krimes: Elegy Quilts

Jesse Krimes: Elegy Quilts features selections from the Pennsylvania-based artist’s ongoing series (2020–present). 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 his 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.

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. His work is held in major collections, including the Brooklyn Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

CPA Prison Arts Annual Show

Guest curator Jeffrey Greene of Community Partners in Action (CPA) has spent thirty-five-plus years helping thousands of people in Connecticut’s prisons maintain their humanity through art. The CPA Prison Arts Annual Show reflects the year-round commitment of CPA staff, participating artists, and artists’ families. The exhibition displays more than 700 works by over 150 artists currently incarcerated in Connecticut prisons. Additionally, an audio and video installation features the work of 8–12 formerly incarcerated artists, immersing visitors in participating artists’ voices.

Initiated in 1978, the Prison Arts Program is CPA’s longest-running program and one of the longest-running initiatives of its kind in the United States. It encourages personal, evolving artistic practices that build purpose, creativity, self-discipline, and communication skills. Greene has served as Program Manager since 1991, working each year with over 400 incarcerated artists and over 50 returning “alumni” artists.

Veronica May Clark: Singing Inside a Glass of Water

Greene also curated the exhibition Veronica May Clark: Singing Inside a Glass of Water. Clark, who is serving a 75-year sentence, devotes considerable time to mastering the limited art-making materials available in prison.

Her practice has evolved from analytical, text-based drawings on notebook paper documenting the sensory specifics of incarceration into sophisticated, hand-woven abstractions. Deconstructing and reassembling fashion magazines and paper bags, she creates works with lush, painterly depth that record persistence and identity.

Nationally and internationally recognized for his leadership, Greene curated How Art Changed the Prison at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and has facilitated the inclusion of artwork from Connecticut prisons in publications such as Harper’s Magazine and The Washington Post Sunday Magazine. He lectures widely on prison arts and has also developed projects with formerly homeless communities and youth. Beyond his work in the arts and advocacy, Greene is an active musician whose projects have earned international recognition, including a BBC “Peel Session.” He holds a BA in Studio Arts from Hamilton College and received the 2020 Vision Award for Arts & Education from the Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford.

About MoCA\CT

The Museum of Contemporary Art \ Connecticut (MoCA\CT) is a destination for thought-provoking visual arts exhibitions, musical performances, and arts education programs that enrich the cultural landscape of Connecticut and beyond. Through the arts, community engagement, and multidisciplinary initiatives, MoCA\CT connects diverse audiences with the art and ideas of our time.

Exhibition Sponsors
The Joyce Thompson Art Fund + Heavy Weather Fund + Gary and Susie Singer Arts & Culture Foundation + Kathryn Turley-Sonne

Media Contact:
Sandra Nygaard
MoCA\CT Director of Marketing + Communications
sandra@mocact.org / Cell: 718-928-4212

Sandra Nygaard
Museum of Contemporary Art \ CT
+1 203-222-7070
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