Fulton Leroy Washington known to all as Mr. Wash is a self-taught artist, educator, and public speaker living and working in Compton, CA. 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.

Washington’s 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 2024, Jeffrey Deitch in Los Angeles held a solo exhibition for Washington titled Mr. Wash. Group exhibitions include Artists Inspired by Music: Interscope Reimagined, LACMA, Los Angeles, CA (2022); Black American Portraits, LACMA, Los Angeles, CA (2022); Shattered Glass, Jeffrey Deitch, Miami, FL (2021); and Made in L.A. Biennial, The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2020). His work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, UCLA, and World Literature Today.