A Chinese artist’s paintings of inmates living inside one of Rome’s most well-known prisons will be projected on the prison building’s exterior and displayed in a new exhibit space near the Vatican as part of 2025 Jubilee initiatives.
The 64-year-old Yan Pei-Ming is a contemporary artist who has been living in France since 1981. He is known for his “epic-sized” portraits of figures such as Chairman Mao, St. Pope John Paul II, Bruce Lee, and Barack Obama. Pei-Ming’s latest portrait series, 27 prisoners living inside Regina Coeli Prison, will be displayed on the side of the prison building. The works, created at the request of the Vatican’s education and culture dicastery, will be the inaugural exhibit of a new art space on Via della Conciliazione, the main street leading to St. Peter’s Basilica.   
The Vatican will highlight the work of contemporary artists during the 2025 Jubilee Year and beyond with the new exhibit space, called “Conciliazione 5,” to be inaugurated Feb. 15, during the Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture. The Vatican has planned a slew of events for the Feb. 15-18 Jubilee of Artists, including the opening of the contemporary art space, Sunday Mass with Pope Francis, and the first-ever visit by a pope to the film studios of Cinecittà. The Vatican expects more than 10,000 people from across the wider art and cultural environments – hailing from over 100 countries and five continents – to participate in events over the four days.