January 26 – March 17, 2024

To See Inside: Art, Architecture, and Incarceration pairs large-scale paintings of prison interiors by Boulder-based artist Sarah McKenzie with a range of artworks and creative writing by artists affiliated with the University of Denver Prison Arts Initiative. Collectively they reflect on the places and spaces of the US prison system and its impact on the people confined within it.

In 2021, McKenzie launched an ongoing project, researching and photographing prison architecture; interviewing people about their experiences inside the US carceral system; and creating paintings of these institutional spaces that are largely hidden away from mainstream society. Her work led her to begin teaching with the University of Denver Prison Arts Initiative (DU PAI), an extraordinary organization that has offered a range of arts-based in-person and correspondence programming for people incarcerated throughout Colorado since 2017. For this exhibition, McKenzie presents her paintings in conversation with artworks and creative writings by formerly and currently incarcerated artists, all of whom she has met through her work with DU PAI.

The Denver Post review of To See Inside by Ray Mark Rinaldi
DARIA art review by Aitor Lajarin-Encina
Rocky Mountain Collegian article by Gwendolynn Riddoch
Coloradoan article on To See Inside

Participating artists and writers include:

Hector Castillo
Anthony Cole
Cayla Cushman
William Daniels
Ryan Flint
JR Gilbertson
Victor Gonzales
Luther Hampson
Lynell Hill
Shawna Hockaday
Matthew LaBonte
Raul Luevano
Monique Lynch
Angelica Macias Williams
Sean Marshall
Joseph Taylor McGill
Justin Moore
Noir O’Dormin
Alejandro Ornelas
Mario Rios
Mike Severson
Billy Scott
and Anonymous