Ojore Lutalo: When Justice is Not Served

Mitzi and Warren Eisenberg Gallery
November 1, 2024–January 26, 2025

The Mitzi and Warren Eisenberg Gallery will feature Ojore Lutalo: When Justice is Not Served, a collection of collages created by New Jersey-based artist Ojore Lutalo over the past 30 years. Lutalo was sentenced to prison for 28 years, 22 of which were spent in solitary confinement, and his original pieces were created to document the psychological hardships and physical abuses he endured while in prison. His more recent work, created after his 2009 release, details his experiences with racial profiling, wrongful detainment, and the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic in prisons and jails.

A 36 x 19 inch photocopied collaged poster by Ojore Lutalo called Untitled. It features a white page with the text "A people suffered; their art tells the story. Every picture tells a story. The man behind the collages. Ojore Lutalo, former U.S. Political Prisoner. (Profiled!)" Next to the text is a man wearing sunglasses. Behind the white page is a cheetah print with a red, pink, and orange zigzagged boarder. The bottom has the same boarder and a picture of a white woman, Bonnie Kerness, who says, "So Ojore, what's new since you got out of prison?" She faces the same guy from above. There is also a yellowed airplane with the text, "Pittsburgh International Airport (2014). TSA agent (profiled!) 2016 What's Next?! Ojore Nuru Lutalo." Below that is a picture of the statue of liberty with the text, "(Profiled!) This could happen to (You!) (Flying black in America!) During the summer of (2014) I can through the Pittsburgh International Airport. I was standing in the airport's checkpoint line behind ten other people. The line is flowing without incident until I approached the checkpoint and produced my passport to the TSA Agent.. he took a glance at my passport, and then looked up at me and asked me was I travelling alone! The person that I was travelling with (Bonnie Kerness) stepped back and said, 'No, He's travelling with me,' and the questioning TSA Agent had no more questions for me!"

Ojore Lutalo, Untitled (Every Picture Tells a Story), n.d., photocopied collaged poster, 36 x 19 inches, courtesy of the artist.