It’s arguably the most famous painting in the world, and it’s shrouded in mystery. Most notably, the identity of the woman pictured in Leonardo da Vinci’s painting known as the Mona Lisa isn’t entirely clear. But one certainty does shine through the 500-year-old masterpiece—the woman in the painting was someone who was considered important enough for her likeness to be preserved in a portrait.
Columbus artist Kirsta Niemie Benedetti is upending the traditional value system of portraiture and raising the visibility of a community the world rarely sees, much less values—incarcerated women.
Benedetti’s exhibition Life Is Precious features her portraits of residents of the Marysville-based Ohio Reformatory for Women and interactive installations of the incarcerated women’s writings. The exhibition is on display through Sept. 13 in the Main Gallery at the Columbus Cultural Arts Center.
Life Is Precious first exhibited in the Ohio Reformatory for Women in May 2024. The current exhibition at the Columbus Cultural Arts Center is the show’s sixth central Ohio appearance.
The exhibition aims to bring nuance to prevalent narratives about the value of people who are incarcerated.
“The focus is using portraiture and storytelling installations as a way of engaging the public in the lives and complexity of those who are incarcerated, and inviting people to reimagine a different form of incarceration that includes the value of these women as members of our society,” Benedetti said.
Painting portraits of marginalized individuals breaks from centuries of tradition. In ages past, having one’s portrait painted was confirmation of his or her importance to society.
“Historically, portraiture functioned not just as representations of individuals, but as assertions of power and social rank,” Benedetti said. “Portraits were reserved for the wealthy and powerful, those deemed worthy of being seen. And interestingly, this exclusivity within art has shaped our cultural value system, subtly teaching us that visibility equates to importance.”
Benedetti saw an opportunity to paint portraits to make those living inside prison walls visible to those on the outside. She created a program during which, for one year, she led weekly group sessions with the women at the Ohio Reformatory for Women and painted portraits of the women for display in a public exhibition.
In the group sessions, the women in the reformatory participated in therapy-informed art projects and journaling exercises. They also shared their stories in group discussions.
“A lot of these women came to the group with complicated views of themselves, primarily shrouded in feelings of guilt and shame, labels that they are bad people, that they could never be proud of themselves because of what they did, even though they’ve changed a lot and done a lot to grow,” Benedetti said.
Benedetti says her goal was for those viewing the finished portraits to see in them people instead of inmates. She transformed the colors of the women’s state-issued prison uniforms into designs representing each woman’s distinct essence. Benedetti also invited the women to suggest three-dimensional objects to be worked into their portraits as symbols of their unique humanity.
“These objects represent them better than their incarceration, than the crime they committed,” Benedetti said.
In some of the group sessions, the women engaged in journaling exercises, exploring themes of identity, memory, joy, loss and resilience.
Along with Benedetti’s portraits, the women’s personal writings chronicling their work in Benedetti’s program will be on display in Life Is Precious for viewers to read. In addition, viewers can connect indirectly with the incarcerated women through an activity inspired by conversations Benedetti had with them about the things beyond the prison walls they miss the most.
“I helped each woman write instructions for some kind of activity or action that those of us on the outside could do in honor of them,” Benedetti said.
Viewers can perform the actions written on cards displayed in the exhibition and respond to some basic questions on a form linked to the QR code on the backs of the cards.
“Whenever somebody does fill that (form) out, I share that back with the women inside,” Benedetti said, “and it creates this loop of care and connection.”
For her part, Benedetti says she has “fallen in love” with the community of incarcerated women and is now establishing a nonprofit organization to continue her work with even more women. The Whole Picture Project aims through art and storytelling to represent misrepresented or marginalized people as they wish to be seen.
“When we view these women’s lives as precious,” Benedetti says, “then everybody benefits.”
Life Is Precious is on display Aug. 8 – Sept. 13 in the Main Gallery at the Columbus Cultural Arts Center.
