Revisiting Pelican Bay Art

This post was originally from 2007 when I first started the blog. However, I decided to re-vamp and revisit the old post . The majority of the art work was from inmates who were serving S.H.U time up at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City California.

"This is where the inmate eats, sleeps and exists for 22 1/2 hours a day. He spends the other 1 1/2 hours alone in a small concrete yard." NPR.org

In recent news:
 July of this year Pelican Bay S.H.U and other supporting prisons in California went on a hunger strike in demand of proper living conditions and human rights.  The following photographs consist of three different art shows from 2006-2007. One of the shows was curated by our very own Slanguage Studio Chinatown Gallery in 2006. The artwork was a collection of pieces and items gathered in correspondence by artist Dixi Swift . The other two shows where curated by small galleries in Long Beach and San Pedro by other organizations.  As conditions and regulations have gotten harsher artwork like this has been hard to send home. For a minute Pelican Bay authorities started stamping mail with a big red stamp ruining some of the work. Other times the artwork never reached its destination and was destroyed. I am not sure the status of artwork today; nonetheless, this might be a last of its kind in this condition without authority alterations.


Insider Art Presents "Ballpoint Creations"

Controversial but thought provoking
Artists: Robert Tamayo, Jesus Gonzalez, Raymond Casares and Steve Carotan
Artist connect to their family and friends through Pelican Bay walls 
Long Beach, California 2007

Check out the rest after the jump!

This next show was at the Slanguage in Chinatown Los Angeles, California June 2006. The premise of the show was displaying hand drawn artwork from inmates at Pelican Bay. Robert Tamayo was also featured in this show along with other artists. 

The last set was an art show in San Pedro, California July 2007 and it was a mix of inmate artist from a variety of prisons in California including the SHU

Original Text: This color one is actually Not done with any colored pencils, crayons or markers THEY are not allowed to have that in the S.H.U but what they do is they soak magazines in water and squeeze the ink out then they use that to have color in their drawings, pretty creative thinking!

Peace,






Dona Junta