Art at a Time Like This Announces Participants in '8x5: Artists Addressing the Justice System'

During Miami Art Week (November 29-December 3), artworks addressing mass incarceration and failures of the U.S. justice system will patrol the streets of Miami Beach via truck-mounted digital billboards and stationary billboards throughout the city. This public art intervention is the result of 8x5, a project named in recognition of the size of an average prison cell, organized by the non-profit Art at a Time Like This. Launched in Miami on June 13th, 8x5 will return to Florida during Miami Art Week when an international audience gathers together to attend art fairs, museum exhibitions and special events. 8x5 is a multi-city project traveling across the US in 2023.

This iteration of 8x5 will feature a diverse range of artists, from those who are internationally known for political art such as Glenn Kaino, Dread Scott and the Guerrilla Girls to artists with firsthand experience of the incarceration system, including Russell Craig, Sherrill Roland and Kellen Stuhlmiller, a young man currently awaiting trial at a Miami detention center. Miami artists/activists, including Chire Regans, Judith Mistor, Jessica Helsinger, Rosa Naday Garmendia and Emily Velez Nelms add local power to the mix. Bringing change through numbers, Art at a Time Like This approached students at University of Miami School of Law to research data and case law, adding statistics to the signage to provide a searing look at the current criminal justice system.

Reginald O'Neal contributes his haunting painting, My Father, Lil Pat, and Our Ancestors, 2021, a homage to generations of his family spent behind bars (currently on view at the Rubell Collection). It can be found as a stationary billboard, located across from FTX Arena. In Little , viewers will encounter a map of the US turned upside down, a commentary by Rosa Naday Garmendia on how mass incarceration threatens our notions of democracy. At the same time, mobile digital billboard trucks will circulate through South Beach and Wynwood, bringing the artworks directly to audiences. Dread Scott juxtaposes an image of a burning Capitol Building, accompanied by the statement, "America Needs Prisons. We Don't Need America," while Glenn Kaino steals a line from Diogenes-"Why not whip the teacher when the student misbehaves?"--a sly reference to the irony of punishing some while leaders go free. Chire Regans creates a portrait of Marissa Alexander, whose case impacted Florida mandatory sentencing laws. Judith Mistor conveys the emotions buried beneath the debates with her image of a totemic sculpture locked in a cage.

By interjecting these issues into an art-viewing experience, 8x5 raises awareness about a broken justice system, hopefully inspiring the crowds in Miami to engage in debate and take action.

ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: On December 3rd at 2PM, the Perez Art Museum Miami will host a roundtable discussion organized by Art at a Time Like This addressing this vital issue that is viewed by many as the greatest crisis facing the U.S. at this time. Participating voices include Russell Craig, Chire Regans and Reginald O'Neal and Exchange for Change director Kathie Klarreich.

See the exhibition:

The artworks are presented on mobile billboard trucks on November 29, 30, and December 1st and 2nd. Be on the lookout for our trucks in Miami Beach, Wynwood and Design District!

Two works will also be present at static billboards at the following locations: NE 2nd Avenue and NE 8th Street across from the FTX Arena and SW 12th Avenue and Flagler Street in Little Havana.

Art at a Time Like This is a non-profit arts organization that provides platforms of free speech for contemporary artists. The current project, 8x5,, seeks to provoke conversations around the problems and inequalities of the judicial system and pose alternatives to the state of mass incarceration in the U.S. Launched in March 2020, ATLT has presented 15 online exhibitions including artists from Hong Kong, Ukraine, Afghanistan and Mexico, plus 4 public art interventions.

Art a Time Like This received recognition and support from the Art for Justice Fund, For Freedoms, the Barton Family Foundation, the law firm of Willkie Farr, Jorge Mora and the Mimi Saltzman Family Foundation to produce 8x5.

Special thanks to Bakehouse Art Complex, Locust Projects, Fountainhead Residency, Spinello Projects, Cristin Tierney Gallery, the Perez Art Museum Miami and University of Miami School of Law, especially Marni Lennon, Assistant Dean for Public Interest and Pro Bono and students and students Law students Courtney Davis, Laura Leira, Brandi Griffin, and Josianne Griffin

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