Fulton Leroy Washington is a self-taught artist with a unique ability to express human emotions.

Fulton Leroy Washington

fultonleroywashington@gmail.com

Fulton Leroy Washington is a self-taught artist with the unique ability to express human emotions in the form of paintings, an educator, and a public speaker. Wrongfully convicted in 1997 for a non-violent drug offense, learned and refined his craft in oil and acrylic while serving a life sentence, the mandatory minimum that had been set during the era of the War on Drugs. On May 5, 2016, after Fulton Leroy Washington had been incarcerated for 21 years, President Obama commuted his sentence and granted him clemency.

Fulton Leroy Washington seeks to become a world-renowned artist; his first subjects were his fellow inmates; he created elaborate photorealistic portraits of his cohort from all around the world, often setting them in idyllic landscapes, dressed in civilian clothing and free. Other portraits depicted the inmates' psychological fissures, including large tears drawn on their faces; some portraits were adorned with paintings within the paintings of fears or anxieties the subjects had shared with their portraitist. 

In 2020, Fulton Leroy Washington was selected as one of 30 artists to participate in the Hammer Museum's Made in L.A. biennial, where he was also the recipient of the Public Recognition Award. His exhibited works have been acquired by U.S. museums and national and international collectors.  Most recently his work has been featured in the group shows Shattered Glass at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery in Los Angeles and Miami Art Basel 2021, and Black American Portraits at LACMA. Fulton Leroy Washington’s exhibited painting of Kobe Bryant was acquired by the museum with funds courtesy of Aubrey Drake Graham aka Drake.

Fulton Leroy Washington continues to work daily in his Compton, California studio on commissions for clients and the art world and above all infusing his creativity in storytelling into every work of art.