Something to Hold On To:
Art and the Carceral System

Main Gallery
November 1, 2024–January 26, 2025

On display in VACNJ’s Main Gallery, Something to Hold On To: Art and the Carceral System sheds light on the vision, ingenuity, and hard-earned creativity of individuals, family members, and collaborators impacted by the United States carceral system. Many of the works in this exhibition give visual form to the experience of being incarcerated—the stark conditions, isolation, dehumanization, and loss of agency, while others are strident statements about societal and racial injustices All artists featured in this exhibition have ties to New Jersey, including Antionette Stephen, Cheryl Chen, Chris Wilson, the Contraband Scholars under the guidance of JD McGuire, Davi Russo, Gilberto Rivera, Jared Owens, and Todd (Hyung-Rae) Tarselli.

A prison cell with a bowl and a door Cheryl Chen, Prison Cell Sketch featured in “From the Inside”, 2022, pen on paper, 8.5 x 11 inches, courtesy of All of Us Publishing

Cheryl Chen, Prison Cell Sketch featured in “From the Inside”, 2022, pen on paper, 8.5 x 11 inches, courtesy of All of Us Publishing.

Contraband Scholars under the guidance of JD McGuire, The Things that can be Learned, 2020, digital print, dimensions variable. It shows a man looking out the bars of a cell in black and white. On top of that is two blue outlines of circles, one inside the other, and an outline of a C inside of that. The text in the middle of the image says, "Contraband Scholars. The things that can be learned."

Contraband Scholars under the guidance of JD McGuire, The Things that can be Learned, 2020, digital print, dimensions variable.

Davi Russo, Frame 60. 2007 from the series Picture Time, 1987-2007, Polaroid, 3.5 x 4.2 inches, courtesy of the artist. It displays two men. The one on the left puts his arm around and looks at the one on the right, who is focused on the camera. Behind them is a mural of a forest scene, which also has river with a bridge and a cottage.

Davi Russo, Frame 60. 2007 from the series Picture Time, 1987-2007, Polaroid, 3.5 x 4.2 inches, courtesy of the artist.

Todd (Hyung-Rae) Tarselli's Solitary, a 15 x 11 inch portrait of a man looking at a food slot. It was made using instant coffee on a paper bag.

Todd (Hyung-Rae) Tarselli, Solitary, instant coffee on paper bag, 15 x 11 inches.