Seeing through Stone brings together artwork by contemporary artists from around the globe whose work engages prisons, justice and freedom. Moving beyond exhibitions that are about prisons and instead oriented towards artists who help provide a vision—and a model—of abolition in practice, Seeing through Stone highlights global networks of care and abolitionist world-building.  

Bringing together artwork by over 80 artists and collectives including 16 new commissions, Seeing through Stone features works which reflect the global scope of carceral conditions and the movements resisting prisons world-wide. With reference to poet Etheridge Knight’s evocation of those who have “the secret eyes”—Seeing through Stone highlights the works of artists, including those who are formerly and currently incarcerated, that offer a vision beyond carceral systems, drawing out the flourishing collective story and alternative imagining currently underway in creating a future free of prisons. 

This is the largest, multi-sited exhibition to-date co-organized with Institute of the Arts and Sciences at University of California, Santa Cruz as part of the ongoing Visualizing Abolition series. 

Artists include Frank Alejandrez, Rebecca Belmore, Reginald BoClair, Imani Jaqueline Brown, Sharon Daniel, Caleb Duarte and Barrios Unidos, Cian Dayrit, Explode! collective, Frente 3 de fevereiro, Charles Gaines, Guillermo Galindo, Maria Gaspar, Amber Ginsburg and Aaron Hughes, Gabriela Golder, Patricia Gómez and Maria Jesús González Fernández, Shilpa Gupta, Ashley Hunt, Steffani Jemison, Mariame Kaba and Rachel Wallis, Sofia Karim, Bouchra Khalili, Robert King, Mulheres Possíveis, Carlos Motta, Gabriela Mureb, Huong Ngô, Sharon Daniel, O grupo inteiro, Samora Pinderhughes, Sherrill Roland, Sable Elyse Smith, jackie sumell, Hajra Waheed, Levester Williams, Timothy James Young, among others. 

Support

Seeing through Stone is made possible by the Mellon Foundation and the SJMA Exhibitions Fund, with lead support from the Myra Reinhard Family Foundation and additional support from the de Souza Bransten Family.

Operations and programs at the San José Museum of Art are made possible by principal support from SJMA’s Board of Trustees, a Cultural Affairs Grant from the City of San José, and the Lipman Family Foundation; by lead support from the Adobe Foundation, the California Arts Council, Toby and Barry Fernald, Brook Hartzell and Tad Freese, the Richard A. Karp Charitable Foundation, Tammy and Tom Kiely, the Knight Foundation, Evelyn and Rick Neely, Yvonne and Mike Nevens, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Skyline Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the SJMA Director's Council and Council of 100; and with significant endowment support from the William Randolph Hearst Foundation and the San José Museum of Art Endowment Fund established by the Knight Foundation at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

Press

Museum Highlights: Seeing through Stone, SF/ARTS
February 1, 2024

Beyond Bars: SJMA Show Illuminates Prison Industrial Complex, Metro Silicon Valley
May 1, 2024

Bay Area arts: 9 great shows and concerts to catch this weekend, Mercury News
May 1, 2024

In ‘Seeing Through Stone,’ artists imagine a world without prisons, SF Chronicle Datebook
July 15, 2024