Current

Phyllis Kornfeld’s CELLBLOCK VISIONS
Dates: May 7 - May 29, 2022
Saturday, May 14: Reception: 3-5 pm and Artist Talk: 4 pm
The artwork being exhibited at A.P.E. was created between 1983 and the present by incarcerated men and women across the country in those prisons and jails that offer classes led by artist/teachers and with limited access to art supplies. Phyllis Kornfeld has been working directly with these artists for over 39 years—in all levels of security from county jail to maximum security to death row.
“These artists did their work with care and passion. Though inexperienced, they seemed to know what to do and how to do it, without instruction. They trusted something, an unseen guide. The art is beautiful in its sincerity even where the truth is painful to see. Art has always had the power to transform lives.”
Artist Bio:
Phyllis Kornfeld is the author of Cellblock Visions: Prison Art in America, Princeton University Press and is the founder of several public projects whereby prison artists donate their artwork to benefit people in need. The Envelope Project: Incarcerated Men and Women Making Art for a Cause sold hundreds of original pieces of envelope art at the Outsider Art Fair in NYC. to benefit a children’s literacy non-profit.
Other publications include “Truth, Goodness, and Beautiful Art: Set Free in the Penitentiary,” for Art Education Beyond the Classroom, Palgrave MacMillan.
Journal contributions include Encyclopedia of Southern Folk Art, Raw Vision: International Journal of Intuitive and Visionary Art, Mountain Record, Art and Antiques Magazine.
Phyllis Kornfeld lives in western Massachusetts and due to the Covid pandemic, is currently waiting to return to teaching at the Berkshire County House of Corrections.
Dates: May 7 - May 29, 2022
Saturday, May 14: Reception: 3-5 pm and Artist Talk: 4 pm
The artwork being exhibited at A.P.E. was created between 1983 and the present by incarcerated men and women across the country in those prisons and jails that offer classes led by artist/teachers and with limited access to art supplies. Phyllis Kornfeld has been working directly with these artists for over 39 years—in all levels of security from county jail to maximum security to death row.
“These artists did their work with care and passion. Though inexperienced, they seemed to know what to do and how to do it, without instruction. They trusted something, an unseen guide. The art is beautiful in its sincerity even where the truth is painful to see. Art has always had the power to transform lives.”
Artist Bio:
Phyllis Kornfeld is the author of Cellblock Visions: Prison Art in America, Princeton University Press and is the founder of several public projects whereby prison artists donate their artwork to benefit people in need. The Envelope Project: Incarcerated Men and Women Making Art for a Cause sold hundreds of original pieces of envelope art at the Outsider Art Fair in NYC. to benefit a children’s literacy non-profit.
Other publications include “Truth, Goodness, and Beautiful Art: Set Free in the Penitentiary,” for Art Education Beyond the Classroom, Palgrave MacMillan.
Journal contributions include Encyclopedia of Southern Folk Art, Raw Vision: International Journal of Intuitive and Visionary Art, Mountain Record, Art and Antiques Magazine.
Phyllis Kornfeld lives in western Massachusetts and due to the Covid pandemic, is currently waiting to return to teaching at the Berkshire County House of Corrections.
Flat File Program 2022
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A.P.E. is excited to announce its inaugural Flat File Program that celebrates the potential of flat media: drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, textiles, ceramic and collage. This collection of small works, selected from an open call, represents a variety of approaches to flat media either as finished works or momentary components of a creative process. A.P.E.’s Flat File Program features the work of 50 local, regional and national artists, many of them new to A.P.E. One of the goals of this new program is to bring work together to highlight and provide exposure to emerging artists and experimental work that is less likely to be shown in a traditional exhibition setting. The 2022 Flat File Program will be available to browse and collect in the online catalog through December 2022.