ABOUT THE ARTIST

Corey Devon Arthur is an incarcerated writer and artist from Brooklyn, New York. He makes art as an intimate way to heal and offer hope of a reimagined future, where we strive to resist first with love, and then with all else we are made of. Corey hopes to create art until every corner of the earth and the people who inhabit it have been touched by his work. Corey has participated in several exhibitions including: Capitalizing On Justice, New York (2019); Return to Sender: Prison as Censorship, EFA Gallery NY (2023); a solo art show, She Told Me Save The Flower, My Gallery Brooklyn, New York (2023) with a follow up display at the Brooklyn Public Library (2024); Work Assignments: Forced Prison Labor in the Land of the Free, several Bay Area locations (2023 & 2024); Paperchained International, Boom Gate Gallery, Australia (2024) and the upcoming exhibition Painting Ourselves Into Society, Berkeley Art Center (September 21st 2024 - January 12th, 2025).

His collection of "Quaker Paintings" are exhibited in Quaker meeting houses across the U.S. Corey collaborated with Brooklyn W.A.Y. to create numerous feminist and pro-social inspired art including his Save The Flower Registry, with its first successful mission, We Freed the Flowers (Mother's Day 2024).

His writing and art have been published in venues including: the Marshall Project; Writing Class Radio; Mangoprism (2022); Study and Struggle Blog; NYU Center for Law, Equality, and Justice Annual Report (2023); and Intra Magazine Time Capsule edition cover (2023).

You can check out more of his art and writing on Instagram @coreydevonarthur, @thebrooklynw.a.y., through the hashtag #freedtheflower, and on Medium.

Artist Statement

Corey Devon Arthur has produced dozens of pieces of art for the Mississippi Five, including an iconic four-panel acrylic portrait of the five women. The larger 18 x 24 inch composite pieces of the collection were born out of necessity and symbolism. He came to specialize in this particular style to enlarge the canvas to match his artistic vision from sketch to brush stroke. Arthur also wanted to symbolize a way to show the strength of unity. One panel alone is a preview. All the pieces put together provide the people with something more powerful than a painting to look at a prophecy and proof of our collective will and ability to resist.

Under normal prison conditions getting an 18 x 24 inch painting out by mail is problematic. Ever since the prison guards went on strike In New York State and visits were suspended, it has proved impossible. This is how his composite style of painting came through in a clutch. Corey carved out a cross on the paint board, and began crushing his craft. He was careful to make sure that his brush strokes fell on the correct coordinates. When the paint dried, he collapsed it into four quarters, sealed it in a 10 x 15 inch manilla envelope, and then mailed it out. The stress of relying on carceral state and the United States Postal Services tore him asunder, until he got confirmation that it touched. Such is the life of a tortured bottom artist.