Exhibitions at JustArts Gallery

JustArts Gallery’s group exhibitions, which launched in March 2025, bring together works by artists currently and previously incarcerated, each creating in their own unique style, voice, and perspective. While the artists’ approaches and experiences vary, their work reveals powerful threads of connection — shared struggles, perseverance, and the universal human drive to create.

Through these collections, we invite visitors to not only witness each artist’s humanity, but also to reflect on what it means to be seen, heard, and valued. What does it feel like to belong? To be acknowledged, named, and known? What is lost when belonging is denied? What might justice look like if it took these most basic of human needs into account, for all involved?

These exhibitions also challenge the boundaries of the art world itself — calling for a more expansive and inclusive cultural landscape. The artists whose work we are honored to share are not looking for charity; they are asking for access, recognition, and to be received as artists and visionaries in their own right. Their work doesn’t just deserve a place in the cultural conversation, it belongs at the center.

In addition to showing in our gallery, JustArts curates exhibitions in businesses and cultural institutions around Tulsa. Check out our rotating exhibit at Chimera Cafe and look below for announcements about special exhibition partnerships. If you’re interested in hosting a JustArts exhibition in your space, please reach out!

“A simple reflection has the power to bring us out of the darkest places. It validates our collective humanity.”

— Cuong (Mike) Tran

Cuong (Mike) Tran, An Inconvenient Truth

Current Exhibitions:

JustArts Gallery @ Circle Cinema

January 2 - 31, 2025

We’ve filled Circle Cinema’s gallery with over 50 works by artists creating within the confines of carceral institutions across the country. By integrating incarcerated artists’ work and stories into community spaces JustArts strives to:

build more just and inclusive arts ecosystems
foster empathy, connection, collaboration, and healing across barriers
challenge the narratives that uphold and
normalize systems of punishment and control

Join us at Circle to celebrate the exhibition’s opening with a reception and film screening on January 8, 2025 at 6:00pm. More information here.

November - February 2025

Drawing Parallels

Drawing Parallels, our first exhibition featuring collaborative works, brings together local artists and artists who are incarcerated. The artwork in the show was created in dialogue between pairs of artists — an exchange of ideas, perspectives, and shared humanity across physical and social barriers. By pairing “inside” and local artists, Drawing Parallels highlights the connections that emerge through art, revealing shared experiences, challenges, and hopes. This exhibition invites viewers to witness how creativity bridges divides and opens space for empathy, understanding, and individual and collective healing.

Featured artists:

Sean J. White in collaboration with Jamie Pierson

Brian Hindson in collaboration with Zadith Rodriguez

Angel Okolie, Kenneth Reams, Sam Anderson, R. Zumar, Neon Squid

"Sean and I knew very little about one another, besides a shared commitment to a creative practice, and an interest in modern abstract painting. And despite the vast differences in our lives, those two things were enough to spark a vibrant collaboration. We centered our work around a shared guiding principle of essential forms, with my work attempting to recreate the built environment in its simplest visual components, and his doing the same for the human shape. It would be simple to say, an experience like this shows that you can connect with anyone, regardless of circumstance or background. But that's not the case, nor should we expect it to be, especially in our culture where many people not only cling to divisions, but seek them out. But rather, I take from this experience the truth that you can find your people anywhere. What's important is staying open to the opportunity to connect, sharing your own hopes and passions with the world, and be ready to receive those good energies back, even from the most seemingly distant sources."

— Jamie Pierson
"This exhibition was meaningful for me both personally and as an emerging artist. Working closely with the nonprofit and witnessing their commitment to humanizing a system that often leaves people with a bitter taste, gave me a deeper understanding of the realities many face. Bringing these artists' work into the light felt like important, necessary work, and I’m grateful to have been part of it.'

- Zadith Rodriguez

Collaborative work by Sean White and Jamie Pierson

Artist Zadith Rodriguez in front of her work (L) and work by collaborator Brian Hindson (R)

Artist Jamie Pierson in front of works by Obie Weathers

Neon Squid about to perform in front of works by Sam Anderson (L) and Angel Okolie (R)

Past Exhibitions

Summer ‘25 Exhibition: July 5 - November 28, 2025

View the full exhibition here!

Featured artists:

Obie Weathers, Carole Alden, Sam Anderson, Cuong (Mike) Tran, Sean Fox, Shaun Wilson, Robert Odom, Sean White, Thomus Manos, Brian Hindson, Jesse Kruze, Gary Farlow, and James Boyd