High Walls: Artists Navigate Structures of Confinement at RedLine Denver, August 15–October 12, 2025, presents art by incarcerated and contemporary artists exploring U.S. carceral systems.
High Walls: Artists Navigate Structures of Confinement
August 15–October 12, 2025
RedLine Contemporary Art Center, Denver
From August 15 to October 12, 2025, RedLine Contemporary Art Center presents High Walls: Artists Navigate Structures of Confinement, an exhibition exploring how physical and imagined spaces shape the carceral system in Colorado and beyond. The exhibition is accompanied by a two-day summit, August 16-17.
High Walls emerges from a national conversation around mass incarceration and the U.S. criminal-legal system, with the intent of bringing this critical and long-overdue conversation to Colorado.
Colorado incarcerates about 614 per 100,000 people in its prisons, jails, immigration detention centers, and juvenile justice facilities.
High Walls asks how space—the built environment, surveillance technologies, and imagined space—shapes the carceral system, and how art becomes a conduit for introspection and ambitions that expand beyond the high walls of the institution.
The exhibition will highlight the work of artists who are currently or were formerly incarcerated in the Colorado Department of Corrections, presented in conversation with projects by notable contemporary artists from outside Colorado, including a sound and video installation by Maria Gaspar and photography by Sara Bennett.
Other projects will speak directly to the region, including a mural workshop with system-impacted youth led by Chicano activist and artist Emanuel Martinez, who has worked with young people to create murals throughout the country.
Curated by Katja Rivera, Geoff Shamos, Sarah McKenzie, and Tya Anthony, this project was developed in consultation and collaboration with local organizations doing work and advocacy in the field, including Impact Arts, Unbound Authors, ACT Ensemble, Unchained Voices, Mirror Image Arts, PhotoVoice, the Emanuel Project, and Colorado Radio for Justice.
The exhibition will be held at RedLine Contemporary Art Center, a nonprofit arts organization in the Five Points neighborhood of Denver, Colorado. RedLine fosters education and engagement between artists and communities, aiming to create positive social change and provide equitable access to the arts for under-resourced populations and grassroots organizations.
Nationally recognized as an important resource for emerging artists, RedLine supports those who use socially engaged art as a tool for positive change, aligning perfectly with the vision of the exhibition High Walls.
The exhibition opening reception takes place on Friday, August 15, 6-8 pm, at RedLine.
Participating artists include Cedar Annenkovna, Sara Bennett, Hector Castillo, Jeffrey Dominguez, Maria Gaspar, Lynell Hill, Riccardo Kirven, Sonny Lee, Douglas DC Lehman, Sean Marshall, Emanuel Martinez, Joseph Taylor McGill, Justin Moore, Molly Ott, Mario Rios, and Dustin Ware.
High Walls will also feature an installation by Unchained Voices, a nonprofit organization and annual art show. The installation will showcase the work of over 130 artists in Colorado state prisons.
On Saturday, August 16, and Sunday, August 17, RedLine will present the High Walls Summit, exploring the impact of incarceration and the criminal-legal system on individuals, families, communities, and society as a whole. Free and open to the public, the summit includes hands-on workshops, an exhibiting artist panel, live performances, readings, and more.
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