Halim Flowers

Halim Flowers is an American artist and writer. He began painting after serving over twenty years in prison for a felony murder he was convicted of as a teenager. He was released from prison pursuant to the Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act, which offered clemency for juvenile offenders given life sentences, and now publishes and displays his artwork around the world.



Biography
Flowers was born in Washington, D.C., on September 1, 1980, and grew up in the midst of the crack epidemic. At the age of 16, Flowers was charged with felony murder when an accomplice killed a man during a home invasion. He was sentenced to two life terms. During his incarceration, Flowers was featured in the Emmy-award-winning documentary America Undercover: Thug Life in DC.

After serving over twenty years, Flowers was released from prison pursuant to statutory reforms aimed at offenders who received life sentences for crimes committed as juveniles. Shortly after his release, he received fellowship awards from Halcyon Arts Lab and Echoing Green to explore using art to change narratives around mass incarceration. He redesigned the logo for the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., in celebration of that museum's centennial, and estimated that he had sold $1 million worth of art in 2021 alone. Within five years of his release from prison, his paintings were displayed in galleries around the world, including Paris, France, Washington, DC, Houston, Palm Beach, Dubai, and MoMA PS1 in Queens, New York, along with residencies in Barcelona and Los Angeles.

Art
Flowers views his painting as a means of changing narratives around mass incarceration. Many of Flowers' works center around the theme of a "superpredator", which was how Flowers was labeled during his time behind bars. Though largely self-taught, his work has been described as influenced by Jean-Michel Basquiat, "with a touch of abstract expressionism included for good measure." Flowers has described his own style as "optical improvisation."

Selected works

 * 2024: Audacity to Love
 * 2024: Struttura dell’Amore
 * 2023: $uperpredator at MFAH
 * 2023: Love is the Re-soul-u-tion
 * 2022: Man Date
 * 2021: Superpredator Loves Agape
 * 2020: Dichotomy's Dialectic Dissected