I am a self-taught visual artist and filmmaker that works with a diverse array of materials and themes. Since my release from prison, now four years ago, I have been an active member in the arts community across the state, and nationally, particularly focusing on efforts to curate the work of my contemporaries and create programming that allows for meaningful dialogue and cultural shifts. My own body of work continues to transform, but the visible longing for justice and a recontextualized release from trauma remains at the core of my practice and message. I have learned that making is an opportunity to embrace my voice, understand my power, and to advocate for human beings experiencing social and political oppressions.
I use a variety of materials, but my first interest is in the surface. Through working things over, layering, deconstructing, and reconstructing sometimes furiously, almost always over long stretches of time, the mark making becomes depth, spectacle, and narrative. The surface, the micro to macro of a painting, is one way I’ve learned to talk about all the little details of something like mass incarceration.
I am deeply rooted in the practice of experimentation, material exploration and obsession, and the physicality of the work and it’s intended audiences. I frequently use a symbolic language to talk about erasure, dehumanization, and oppression. Uniforms, numbers, chains, razor wire, interior/exterior carceral spaces, collide with bridges, trains, tunnels, schools, and parks. The figurative work dives deeper: body as raw material, our enslavement to capitalism and carceral states, and finally, the body’s return to dust, to brick, to block, to stone.
I continue to leverage my privilege, networks, and relationships to pursue
arts access and opportunities for those artists who are or have been
incarcerated. I believe that my art making is as much a necessity for my
survival as it is the impetus for creating positive change and restoring the
hope and dignity of my community.
Contact me: thereturningartistsguild@gmail.com @aimeeinks @thereturningartistguild
Education:
Bachelors of Science in Applied Management (BSAM) Ohio University, 2021
Business management/Entrepreneurship (AAS) Sinclair community college, 2019
Business Foundations Specialist (ATS) Sinclair Community College, 2019
Experience:
Arts Marketing and Administration Fellow, Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery, July 2020-present
Art Around Ohio Internship, Ohio University and the Ohio Arts Council, June – August 2021
Administrative Fellow, Ohio Arts Council, December 2019 – June 2020
Teaching, Workshops, and Public Speaking: Current Partners
Prosecutor Impact
The Justice Arts Coalition
The Ohio Prison Arts Connection
Central Ohio Restored Citizens
California Lawyers for the Arts/Arts In Corrections
We Amplify Voices
Exhibitions: *denotes: served as curator as well as exhibiting artist
Wright State University, (Dayton, OH) November 2016
States of Incarceration, Antioch College (Yellow Springs, OH) April 2018
Heart of Concord, Concord Counseling Services, (Westerville, OH) May 2018
OPAC Annual Gathering*, Wexner Center for the Arts, (Columbus, OH) November 2018
Featured Artist at the Emporium, Emporium Wines, (Yellow Springs, OH) July-August 2018
Celebrate Women’s History, Franklin County Coroner’s Office, (Columbus, OH) March 2019
Operation Monarch, Columbus Cultural Arts Center, (Columbus, OH) April 2019
Heart of Concord, Concord Counseling Services, (Westerville, OH) May 2019
Time Saved Vs. Time Served, Contemporary Arts Center (Cincinnati, OH) June 2019
Outside the Tides, Art Outside the Lines Community Studio (Columbus, OH) July 2019
Addiction Studies Institute Convention, Fresh A.I.R. Gallery (Columbus, OH) July 2019
Cloud City*, 400 W. Rich (Columbus, OH) September 2019
Grind/Time*, 934 Gallery (Columbus, OH) September 2019
Iron Cages, President Lincoln’s Cottage, (Washington, D.C.) January 2020
Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, (Queens, NY) April 2020-April 2021
American Sunrise, The Vanderelli Room, (Columbus, OH) January 2021
Crossings, Fresh A.I.R. Gallery, (Columbus, OH) July 2021
Triad Show, Roy G Biv Gallery (Columbus, OH) April 2021
Art Aligned, All People Arts, (Columbus, OH) August 2021
RAG: Free to Be, Wild Goose, (Columbus, OH) August 2021
No Boys Allowed, Lookout Supply Shop, (Columbus, OH) August 2021
Be the Light, Be the Light Foundation, 400 W. Rich St., (Columbus, OH) August 2021
Urban Scrawl, Franklinton Arts District, (Franklinton, OH) August 2021
Art for Life 2021, Columbus Museum of Art, (Columbus, OH) October 2021
Film: FOR THEY KNOW NOT, 2016, short film, writer-director
https://vimeo.com/356550411 Password: P2picsaw
Screenings:
Dayton Correctional Institution, (Dayton, OH) -November 2016
Wright State University, (Dayton, OH) -December 2016
Celebrate Women Conference, (Athens, OH) -March 2017
NARAL Pro Choice, (Columbus, OH) -March 2017
LunaFest, (Dayton, OH) -March 2017
Clark County Juvenile Detention Center, (Springfield, OH) -April 2017
The Mini Micro Cinema of Cincinnati, (Cincinnati, OH) -July 2017
The Ohio State University’s Wexner Center for the Arts, (Columbus, OH) -September 2017
Directors Dialogue on Art and Social Change https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is8asfGOf68
Ohio Justice and Policy Center, (Cincinnati, OH) -September 2017
Justice on Trial Film Festival, (Los Angeles, CA) -September 2017
Ohio University, (Athens, OH) -October 2017
DePauw University, (Greencastle, IN) -October 2017
Little Art Theatre, (Yellow Springs, OH) -November 2017
MonDay Community Correctional Institution, (Dayton, OH) -February 2018
Radio and Podcasts:
WYSO Interview inside D.C.I.
One in Four Podcast