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

Prison Galleries Exhibition: Derrick Quintero – “If My Journey Were a Book Title,” Part 1 — Derrick Quintero – “If My Journey Were a Book Title,” Part 1

Prison Galleries Exhibition: Derrick Quintero – “If My Journey Were a Book Title,” Part 2 — Derrick Quintero – “If My Journey Were a Book Title,” Part 2

By Artist Richard Odom

Prison Galleries Exhibition: Richard Odom, "Crying Dove" (outside view) — Richard Odom, “Crying Dove” (outside view)

Prison Galleries Exhibition: Richard Odom, "Crying Dove" (inside view) — Richard Odom, “Crying Dove” (inside view)

By Artist Harold Wayne Nichols

Prison Galleries Exhibition: Harold Wayne Nichols, “Prison: Outside the Box” — Harold Wayne Nichols, “Prison: Outside the Box” (foam board, paint, balsa wood, mirror, collage. When you peer through the window and “pie flap” of this diorama, you see your own face in the mirror, surrounded by images of Wayne’s family and friends, which are pasted in a collage behind the door.)

By Artist Kennath Artez Henderson

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

*Page compiled by Lisa Dawson