FULTON LEROY WASHINGTON

(also known as MR. WASH) was born in Tallulah, Louisiana. In the late 1990s he was convicted of a nonviolent drug offense and sentenced to life in prison. While incarcerated, Washington began to draw and eventually to paint. His first subjects were his fellow inmates, depicted in elaborate photorealistic portraits and often situated in idyllic landscapes, dressed in civilian clothing and free. In masterful and detailed compositions, Washington captured the inmates’ psychological vulnerabilities, expressed in large tears running down their faces; some portraits are adorned with miniature paintings within the paintings that depict fears or anxieties the subjects shared with the artist. While in prison Washington also took commissions and extended his repertoire by painting political and pop culture figures.

In 2014 he completed a work titled Emancipation Proclamation, modeled on Francis Bicknell Carpenter’s canvas First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln (1864). In it, Washington painted President Barack Obama granting him clemency. This image proved to be prophetic, as on May 5, 2016, after Washington had been incarcerated for twenty-one years, Obama commuted his sentence. The artist maintains that this painting caught the president’s attention and catalyzed his release. Washington’s portraits in Made in L.A. 2020 depict both public figures and individuals whom the artist met while incarcerated. The subjects of Washington’s teardrop paintings include celebrities, politicians, and his peers. These wildly disparate individuals are leveled by the complex emotional interiorities captured in the portraits.