Alberto Lule
Alberto Lule's current artwork focuses on mass incarceration and the prison industrial complex in the United States, particularly the California prison system. Using his own experiences, he aims to tie the prison industrial complex to other American political issues such as immigration, homelessness, drug addiction, and mental health, all of which, along with many other issues, are connected to the millions of people being incarcerated and used in a new form of slavery. By focusing on how institutional systems operate, he has come to notice the similarities between all institutions, from institutions of higher learning to correctional institutions. These similarities can be exposed and learned from, not only from a scientific point of view, but even more thoroughly through art. He is a co-chair of a student organization at UCLA called The Underground Scholars Initiative. They are a group composed of formerly incarcerated students as well as students that have been impacted directly by the California prison system. Their aim is to support and advocate for formerly incarcerated students and students who are currently incarcerated. By partnering with other groups, such as UCLA ́s Prison Education Program, the Underground Scholars Initiative fights to dismantle the prison industrial complex and the school to prison pipeline.