Let’s Get Free’s Permanent Art Collection

Let’s Get Free’s permanent art collection features art made by people in prison as well as artists on the outside who are in solidarity with ending mass incarceration. Through drawings, paintings, prints, cross-stitch, banners, and poetry, the artworks express personal stories, social critique, conditions of confinement and aspirations for the future. 

This collection travels around creating a platform for the voices of incarcerated artists and is a springboard to talk about community organizing for liberation. Every show is different, depending on how much space we have at each location. Keep in mind the permanent collection is different from Let’s Get Free’s annual auction fundraising show.

The collection has been gathered through annual art shows and over ten years collaborating with artists in prison. The biggest bulk of the work came from 2020 End Death By Incarceration themed exhibition. We continues to add pieces to the collection.

Let’s Get Free (LGF) is a Pittsburgh-based organization working to end perpetual punishment and build a pathway out of prisons and back into our communities. Let’s Get Free accomplishes its goals through commutation reform, supporting successful possibilities for people formerly and currently incarcerated, and shifting to a culture of transformative justice. Over 73,000 people in Pennsylvania are currently incarcerated with 5,040 people sentenced to Death by Incarceration (also known as Life Without Parole). LGF’s many activities, including its annual art show, is centered on the liberation of people behind bars.

Host the Collection

The collection is meant to be borrowed and to travel, lifting the voice of people in prison and creating dialogue with audiences everywhere it goes ! You can borrow one piece, several pieces or the whole collection. The collection is an organizing tool bringing people together to reflect upon the conditions of prisons and their function in PA or wherever you may be. Examples of events we have had in the past include film screenings, panel discussions, artists tours/talks or community meetings and musical fundraisers for local organizations.

Contact: etta@letsgetfree.info to set up a meeting.

2024 Exhibits
Abolitionist Expressions Kelly-Strayhorn Theater

February 29, 2024 – June 8, 2024

30 pieces show with video loop playing films produced by Let’s Get Free

View KST Gallery Guide

Abolitionist Expressions
Fall 2024

September 22, 2024 – October 10, 2024
East Liberty Presbyterian Church

View ELPC Gallery Guide

20 Pieces from our collection were shown plus exhibited 9 pieces from Still Doing Life 22 lifers, 25 years later photography exhibit features portraits by Howard Zehr and interviews with 22 men and women incarcerated with life without parole in Pennsylvania at two points in time during their incarceration – mid-1990s and 2017.

Something to Hold On To: Art and the Carceral System

Visual Art Center of New Jersey
Fall 2024

November 01, 2024 -January 26, 2025
NJ Gallery Event Posting

Exhibited three pieces by Todd “Hyung Rae Tarselli” George Floyd, Solitary and Night Owl

View art collection

This section is a work in progress – we’re still adding art and information. As of 2024 we have about 80 pieces in the collection.

The piece depicts an orange colored prison with grey doors chained shut on yellow gradient background. Above the prison there is text that reads, “What we lose.” Atop the prison, behind barbed wire, there are two grey cylinders from which two tubes with claws are holding the bodies of two women: the one on the left is colored in purple with long hair, the other is a skeleton of a person also colored purple. Along the tube to the left reads, “New Commit” leading down to the body, next to which reads “What will we do without her?” Along the tube to the right read, “LWOP” and “Medical Release.” Next to the skeleton on the right are the words, “What have they done with her?” Above the door of the prison are the words “…and what they say…” Above that are prison windows including three images: a green cross surrounded by the words, “Drink water, Lie down,” a grey brain next to the words, “You can read?” and red and pink depiction of the female reproductive system with the words, “Skank, Farry, Ugly, and Bitch.” In the foreground are four hands colored in purple. The hands are in various positions and each has a yellow rectangle with a word inside. From left to right they read, “No,” “Please,” “Why,” and “No.”
The piece depicts a closeup profile view of the face of a beautiful Black woman. She has brown eyes, dreads, and pink lipstick. She has a small shining stud in her nose. In her hands, she holds a yellow and orange key that emanates a bright light. The background is black and maroon with white speckles and some additional gold swirls. You can see that she is in the dark, the key in her hand a warm glowing light. This piece is emotional.
The piece is a portrait of Sheena’ King. She has medium length black hair with highlights of blue and orange and is smiling. She wears a pink collared shirt with orange highlights. The background is yellow beams emanating from the portrait over a teal background. In a circle surrounding the portrait is the quote, “We are not what we have done, we are who we have become” in cursive, blue text with a white outline.
This painting is composed of different shades of brown and has a warm and cozy feel and is primarily a close up of a person’s face. They are a Black person with hair in thin dread locks draping across their face with a brown eye peering through. They are cuddled up with an animal print blanket resting their head on the pillow.
The piece depicts a closeup of a person looking towards the slot on a prison door where food would be passed, as they do when you are in solitary confinement. One hand is curled under the side of their cheek, the other is reaching towards the slot. The tones of the image range from tan to dark brown. The brown paper is crinkled catching the light.
This image depicts a person of color being eaten by a large clock while lying on their prison cell cot. The face of the clock is a wild animal, which is biting the prisoner and attempting to eat them. The numbers “11”, “12”, and “1” are visible on the animal’s forehead–the top of the clock. Looking over the prisoner in the top right corner is a hooded skeleton wearing a crown. A skeleton key hangs on a chain around the robed skeleton’s neck. The text “Coronavirus” is written on the left side of the skeleton’s hood. A bunch of letters are on the cell floor near the image’s bottom left. One letter is in the animal’s mouth. It says “Motion for relief Denied.” The other letters read “Pandem strikes US”, “Commutation Denied”, “Diabetes, Stroke, High Risk”, and “Grandpa, I hope that you are safe from Covid.” The image background is the prison cell’s stone wall, along with the cell door and its grated window
A 10-foot lilac-colored woven tapestry banner made with over 30 letters from people in prison. Spells out the word Redemption in large yellow letters
A small brown and white spotted fawn lays curled among yellow ferns on the ground of a forest. The entire image is painted on a leaf.
A portrait of Harriet Tubman, based on a well-known black and white photograph, but rendered in color with intricate detail on her face, and with a vibrant gold background.
Painting of a prison id card that is a self portrait with name and ID #.
A colorful self-portrait drawn in bright colors fading from purple and blue to red and orange, then green, next to which the artist has written a poem in the form of a love letter to themself and the things they want to remember about themself.
A figure of an older man sitting on a couch reading newspaper with images of younger versions of himself in the background
A hand reaches out to grasp another hand that descends from the opposite direction, but the first hand is surrounded by flames and water that contains other hands and pincers grasping at the reaching hand.
A grid outline shows multiple squares with collage-like imagery inside them like an eye, the number 13, long rectangles, and chaotic scribble shapes.
A cubist-style shape made of colorful pieces, some of which depict body parts like, eyes, noses, breasts, lips, and legs. All the shapes are filled with intricate circles, giving the piece a mosaic-like texture.
A portrait of Rosa Parks based on her booking photo or mug shot from 1956. The background is a torn red, white, and blue fabric, and Rosa wears a vibrant blue jacket and glasses. She holds the number 7053 and gazes at the viewer with a determined but calm face.
A prison cell on the left side of the composition opens up into an expansive landscape where a path through a field leads towards sunlit rolling hills in the distance.
A drawing of multiple black and white striped, two-eyed, oval-shaped figures that fill up the entire image. The figures start small around the border and get larger towards the center of the image. Between each of the many figures are bright red hearts.
BLM by Angela Hellman
A drawing of head with upper body coming off of a red frame in a dark background.
This piece is assembled in an old wooden letter press drawer, a thin box with tiny square shelves at the top, each with a mirror inside. plastic flowers adorn the edges. A tiny giraffe, plastic chair and seeds fill some of the boxes at the top. The top center has a fabric pocket that says "We" in big letters and "free" in small letters under. there are sequins florouish that look like wings jutting out. black and white feathers poke out from the fabric pocket. Belwo this is rubberstamped "No one grows alone says the forest" with trees stamped all around it. Tiny pine cones adorn the corners.
A walnut is painted in blue and greatly magnified in this painting, on black canvas with the words “Hope“ in cursive at the top .
Lady liberty rendered in grayscale, with a paper bag on her head.
A man with brown skin and dark hair with a graying beard looks outward at the viewer, he is surrounded by a diploma, a stack of books, an hour glass with the dates 2012, 2019, 2027 on the sand, a cell door, and the head of a wild mustang in front of a landscape. In the distance is also an image of what appears to be the same man wearing a graduation cap.
An outline the shape of a pregnant woman is rendered with prison bars and imagery behind them that goes from images of alcohol in the feet to a crying face in the head, with a serene facial expression and musical notes near the eyes. The head of the figure seems to have popped open and filled the entire surface of the page with brigh shapes and imagery like flying saucers, razor wire, and words like "anxiety".
An EKG line in the middle of the page intersects a vibrantly-colored butterfly, around which are written the words "Victim..No, Survivor..Maybe...Thriver, Definitely".
A delicate and angular painting of a feminine head with three creepy fingers coming out of her eye. The figure's is wearing a helmet with a cord attached that reveals her skull being full of gears. Drips of blood run down her face from the helmet.
A drawing of a human head out of which a bird cage with wings is emerging
An image of the African continent rendered in metallic copper is centered on top of a background made from colorful organic shapes, textile patterns, and renderings of cord and beads that create an undulating path across the vibrant backdrop. Centered inside the image of Africa is writing in Afrikan Diasporic Glyph.
The painting's surface has been rendered to look like a steel plate, adorned with a bird and flowers that are patterned in vibrant colors and traditional African patterns. In the center of the plate is another placard that appears to be screwed into the surface, and displays writing in Afrikan Diasporic Glyph.