MoCA\CT opens Inside/Outside, three exhibitions on art and incarceration

The Museum of Contemporary Art \ Connecticut (MoCA\CT) in Westport will present Inside/Outside, a set of three related exhibitions about the physical and emotional walls of incarceration. The exhibitions will be on view from Dec. 5, 2026, to March 14, 2027.

The exhibitions are Jesse Krimes: Elegy Quilts, the CPA Prison Arts Annual Show, and Veronica May Clark: Singing Inside a Glass of Water. Together, they show how making art can preserve memory, assert identity, and sustain connection when personal agency is limited.

An opening reception will take place at MoCA\CT on Saturday, Dec. 5, from 4 to 6 p.m. Visitors will encounter the artists through their work, perspectives and voices rather than their sentences.

Elegy Quilts features selections from Krimes’ ongoing series, which began in 2020. He reassembles clothing and textiles donated by currently and formerly incarcerated people into quilts that portray home and memory. The traveling show was organized by The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia.

The CPA Prison Arts Annual Show displays more than 700 works by over 150 artists currently incarcerated in Connecticut prisons. An audio and video installation also features 8 to 12 formerly incarcerated artists. Guest curator Jeffrey Greene of Community Partners in Action curated the show and the Clark exhibition, which includes hand-woven abstractions made from fashion magazines and paper bags.

MoCA\CT says it is presenting Inside/Outside not to excuse the consequences of criminal behavior, but to show that the human mind stays active and resilient inside prison walls. The exhibitions are meant to encourage conversations about accountability, rehabilitation, mass incarceration, and prison reform.