Incarcerated: Visions of California in the 21st Century

Artist Sandow Birk has created a new series of paintings and prints of California's 33 State Penitentiaries and 2 Federal Prison. Bik made a pilgrimage to those correctional facilities to document them and render them in the style of Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, Thomas Moran, Albert Blerdstadt, and other significant 18th Century artists who explored the new territory of California. He follows in the footsteps of these painters who ventured out into the "Wild West and depicted its landscapes in the classical and romantic styles often addressing the sublime nature of man's interaction with America's extreme terrain. However, in the 21st Century, California no longer resembles the mythic image of the old west. Today it is a developed, overpopulated, and controlled environment. Birk aims to update our perception of this complicated territory and its many environmental, educational, and social woes.