Transformation: Art from the Inside

Transformation: Art from the Inside is an exhibition featuring works by incarcerated artists that reflects their personal transformation and restoration through visual expression. Founded by retired Stillwater correctional officer Antonio Espinosa, Art from the Inside is an organization that empowers incarcerated people to use art as an outlet for emotions while creating a platform for dialog about the complexities of our criminal justice system through exhibitions of their work. 

Transformation reflects how art can help people imagine new ways of being and recognize our power to change. To learn more about Art from the Inside check out a documentary video on view in the M’s second-floor skyway EcoLab entrance, which you can access from Robert Street. 

This documentary, produced by Art From the Inside, features the stories of incarcerated artists in Minnesota. Lennell Maurice Martin and Roberto Lopez-Rios, two of the artists featured in the documentary, have work on view in the M’s window galleries on 4th and Roberts street as a part of Transformation. 

Photographs of the artwork featured in the exhibition were taken by Kimani Beard. The original artworks reproduced here will be on view at nearby Creators Space—along with additional artwork created by Art from the Inside artists—from November 5–30, 2021. Creators Space is located at 218 7th St. E, in downtown St. Paul.

Transformation was curated by Kylie Linh Hoang as part of her curatorial fellowship at the M, a position partially funded by the Minnesota Historical Society. Kylie is a public historian and curator, and she believes in the transformational power of storytelling and placemaking through exhibition.
 

About the artists
The artists contributing to Transformation are incarcerated at the Stillwater and Shakopee branches of the Minnesota Correctional Facilities.

Stillwater is a men’s facility that emphasizes restorative justice programming and educational opportunities for the incarcerated. Art classes are available on a limited basis and some of the work included in Transformation are the product of those classes. Other featured artists created their work independently.  

Shakopee is a women’s facility that provides gender and trauma-informed programming as well as educational opportunities. Due to the size of the facility, Shakopee is not able to provide an official art class to its population. Despite the lack of formal training, Shakopee’s artists innovatively explore themes of radical change with courage and grace. Artists incarcerated at Shakopee created all three pieces featured in this Window Gallery. These artworks explore how circumstance coincides with choice by considering the duality of enduring trauma while aspiring towards personal growth and fulfillment.

Image: Emmanuel Maurice Galloway, The Missing Pieces, 2021