“Unfinished Sentences”
Farber Grant Exhibition 2026
About the project:
Unfinished Sentences is a figurative oil painting exhibition that explores the lived experiences of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals through narrative visual storytelling. Supported by the Rebekah and Howard Farber Fund for Student Excellence, the project centers voices and histories that are often overlooked, drawing attention to the humanity, complexity, and resilience of those impacted by the carceral system.
Rooted in a personal connection to incarceration, the work emerges from the artist’s experience witnessing how easily people become defined by their sentences rather than recognized as full, nuanced individuals. The series seeks to challenge those reductive perceptions by engaging with real stories and reframing them through intimate, painterly representation.
The exhibition features oil paintings that bring renewed life to archival childhood photographs graciously shared by formerly incarcerated participants. These early images—fragmented, tender, and expressive—are paired with contemporary portraits of each individual, creating a layered dialogue between past and present. Through this pairing, the work aims to reanimate memory, acknowledge lost or obscured histories, and invite viewers into a space of empathy and recognition.
By weaving together portraiture and personal narrative, Unfinished Sentences builds a visual language that humanizes, restores agency, and deepens connection across the carceral divide. The project reflects an ongoing collaboration and a profound trust from those who have offered their stories, creating a collective portrait of experience that resists erasure and affirms the fullness of each life represented.
“Baby Blues”
This painting, based on a film photograph, depicts a previously incarcerated artist as a baby—captured long before the world began to define him by his circumstances. Painted with care and intentional softness, the portrait invites viewers into a space of quiet reflection and shared humanity.
As the first work in progress in the exhibition, it sets the tone: one of mutual understanding, empathy, and a challenge to the stereotypes that surround incarceration. By presenting the artist at such a tender age, the work reminds us that every person—regardless of their past—once existed in this same state of innocence and possibility.
We all carry a connection to our younger selves. In seeing him as a child, viewers are encouraged to reflect inward, to consider the shaping of identity over time, and to recognize the full, complex person behind the label of “formerly incarcerated.”
This is more than a portrait—it is an invitation to see, to feel, and to remember.
20’ by 24’ Oil on Canvas, 2025
36’ by 36’ Oil on Canvas 2025
This painting captures a fleeting, sun-drenched rooftop moment, where the ordinary becomes extraordinary through the lens of light, companionship, and stillness. A group of individuals lies sprawled across the rooftop, each person relaxed, mid-conversation or lost in their own thoughts. Their bodies drape casually over the sun-warmed surface, surrounded by bottles and shadows, signaling an impromptu gathering—not of grandeur, but of release.
There’s a quiet poetry in the mundane here: denim shorts, striped shirts, and crumpled paper cups become artifacts of freedom. The city stretches behind them in a haze, distant and soft, as though possibility lies just beyond the skyline. The rooftop becomes a liminal space—neither inside nor fully outside—offering a sense of pause, a moment untouched by responsibility or confinement.
This scene is a meditation on beauty found in everyday acts: the simple pleasure of sunlight on skin, the vulnerability in rest, the safety in friendship. It speaks to the dream of life beyond limitations—beyond the metaphorical (or literal) walls of prison. In their leisure, in their laughter or silence, these figures embody hope. They are not just escaping—they are reclaiming.
The work is a celebration of resilience and a portrait of joy in stillness. It reminds us that even amid struggle, there are spaces—however small—where light breaks through, and where the soul remembers what it means to simply be.
“7pm in Manhattan”
“A Birthday Phone Call”
36’ by 48’ Oil on Canvas, 2025
The first time I visited my brother in jail was on his 21st birthday. My dad and I had done video calls with him throughout the year, but there was a difference between seeing someone through a screen and seeing them in person.
This painting is about that day. The weight of it. The strangeness of loving someone you barely recognize. And of barely recognizing someone you love.
Works In Progress
Works In Progress
