Revolving doors between mass-incarceration and homelessness are plaguing American cities. More than half of New York's adult black men are currently under correctional control ? in prison or jail, on probation or parole. Allegedly "free," but labeled as "felons" for life, those impacted by the so-called "justice" system remain fundamentally barred from mainstream society. Survivors of correctional confinement are almost ten times more likely than their fellow citizens to subsequently find themselves unhoused. In turn, rampant criminalization of homelessness increases the risk of winding up behind bars again. Carceral correction and custodial care deeply intertwine, as welfare is steadily substituted by "prisonfare" and "shelterfare". Rooted in systemic inequality, this revolving door between incarceration and homelessness arguably masks one of the world's most sophisticated racial segregation doctrines.
This exhibition mobilizes art as a radically transformative tool for healing trauma and rehumanizing the 21st century's urban "outcast". Combining photography, poetry, painting, storytelling and performance, directly impacted artists interrogate the intersection of punitive oppression and emancipatory struggles for justice. Welcome Home claims the gallery as a pedestal to display and debate the rampant hostility and acute need for hospitality in the urban environments we collectively construct. What kind of "welcome home" does one encounter when coming home homeless? And which pathways towards a more just urban world are spearheaded by avant-garde grassroots actions?
This exhibition mobilizes art as a radically transformative tool for healing trauma and rehumanizing the 21st century's urban "outcast". Combining photography, poetry, painting, storytelling and performance, directly impacted artists interrogate the intersection of punitive oppression and emancipatory struggles for justice. Welcome Home claims the gallery as a pedestal to display and debate the rampant hostility and acute need for hospitality in the urban environments we collectively construct. What kind of "welcome home" does one encounter when coming home homeless? And which pathways towards a more just urban world are spearheaded by avant-garde grassroots actions?
Jeroen Stevens is an architect and urbanist currently engaged as post-doctoral fellow at the KU Leuven in Belgium. Interlacing urbanism and ethnography his research and teaching are contingent on collaboration with social movements that push the frontiers of struggles for justice and housing rights in cities as São Paulo, Brussels and New York.
apexart’s program supporters past and present include the National Endowment for the Arts, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, the Kettering Family Foundation, the Buhl Foundation, The Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Spencer Brownstone, the Kenneth A. Cowin Foundation, Epstein Teicher Philanthropies, The Greenwich Collection Ltd., William Talbott Hillman Foundation/Affirmation Arts Fund, the Fifth Floor Foundation, the Consulate General of Israel in New York, The Puffin Foundation, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, public funds from Creative Engagement, supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and administered by LMCC, funds from NYSCA Electronic Media/Film in Partnership with Wave Farm: Media Arts Assistance Fund, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, as well as the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.