Mr. Wash: ‘Mr. Wash’

Transcending Adversity

Currently at Jeffrey Deitch in Los Angeles, a stirring solo show chronicles the inner struggles and hard-earned triumphs of a once estranged artist expressed through poignant symbology.  Sentenced to life in prison on a drug charge, artist Fulton Leroy Washington, aka Mr. Wash, was only mercifully released back into the world, by President Obama, after more than two decades of imprisonment. It was during his confinement that Wash learned to become a painter, ultimately harnessing his solitude, unrelenting faith, and longing for loved ones as his driving source material.

This intimate collection of oil paintings includes work created both in and outside of prison (from 1999-2024). The former, due to the spatial limitations of his previous environment, are smaller in size and embody a palette simpler and moodier than his recent work. The slender painting, Cell Without a Door, serves as a tiny window into a regular day in the life of the incarcerated. Here, a cuffed hand clutches a reflective sphere, which mirrors back to us its forlorn owner, caged within a bleak cell.

Cell Without a Door

The features of this environment – a sink, urinal, bean slot, and a bunk bed – can all be summarized in a swift glance, epitomizing its smallness. In Missing You, an ethereal thought-scape reveals imaginary hands entwined in affection, extending from a face that longingly gazes out into the shadowy distance. Regarding such emotion, the viewer might be reminded not to take for granted the sensory comfort of a loved one’s touch.

Empathy

Mr. Wash’s later works seem to offer expanded reflections on life – biographical elements fused together with broader societal issues – which are conveyed on larger canvasses and in brighter colors. Not merely a self-portrait, Empathy is a potent statement against social injustice. Here, the artist is shown with teardrops running down his cheek, and bullet holes splattered across his chest. Inside each of these, a miniature scene references atrocious mass shootings: pictures of elementary schools, gravestones, a gunman, and a foreboding sign asking, “Are You Next?”

Eyes of Sabeth

Essentially, Mr. Wash’s story is one of survival through the power of art. Out of necessity, visual expression became the vehicle for his vivid memories and spiritual determination, strengthening his visual faculties throughout those many, isolated years. The resulting paintings brim with precise, often surrealistic details, conveying emotionally rich statements. While Wash’s eventual trajectory has proven quite the exception – liberation followed by resounding success – we can’t help but wonder how many lesser fortunate talents have been unnecessarily cut off from those reserves of life essential to an artist’s development. Nonetheless, with strong will and proactive desire for change, Wash continues to transcend adversity, reverberating hope across innumerable communities with imagery that is unabashedly bold and uplifting.

The Book of Jonah

Cover image: Blood Trail; all images courtesy Jeffrey Deitch Los Angeles, photographed by the author.