Art: Tennessee Death Row

Prison Galleries Exhibition: Donald Middlebrooks, “Midnight”
Donald Middlebrooks, “Midnight” (acrylic on canvas board)

The artwork presented on this page was included in the exhibition Prison Galleries, which featured art created by prisoners on death row at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. According to the description of the show:

The United States incarcerates more of its own citizens than any other country in the world, and we are the only Western democracy to retain the death penalty.  As part of A Year of Rethinking Prisons, Sarratt Gallery presents artwork created by prisoners on death row at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee. The art seeks to convey the prison environment and to explore possibilities for living, thinking, working, and creating while on death row.

The pieces below directly address the reality of life in long-term solitary confinement, which all of the artists have experienced. For more details about the show, additional samples of artwork, and links to poems, essays, and stories by the men on Death Row, click here.

By Artist Derrick Quintero

By Artist Richard Odom

By Artist Harold Wayne Nichols

By Artist Kennath Artez Henderson

Prison Galleries Exhibition: ennath Artez Henderson, “Solitary Confinement”
Kennath Artez Henderson, “Solitary Confinement” (pencil on paper)

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*Page compiled by Lisa Dawson

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