Timothy Washington studied at the Chouinard Art Institute with Charles White, alongside fellow artist David Hammons. Washington’s work has long been associated with others in the Black Arts Movement – the aesthetic and social sibling to the Black Power Movement – as well as those catalyzed by the Watts Rebellion of 1965 including Noah Purifoy, Betye Saar, John Outterbridge and John Riddle. Many of these artists, like Washington, came to create artworks repurposing debris from burnt and destroyed buildings, recovering debris from abandoned homes and the environment at large. In the decades since his youth, Washington has become more sensitive to the relationships between materials, as well as what he refers to as the “liveliness” of objects. “When I had an etching class, the plate seemed so much more fascinating to me than the print itself. And I wondered about boundaries in art. Wny should the plate be considered something to use to make a paper print when I loved the plate so much more? The plate said so much more to me because it had me with it.” Washington is known for his graphic and pictorial works – which include mixed-media collages, metal etchings and drypoints, painting, and drawings on paper – as he is the volumetric sculptures; his object-based processes accrued from the material process of sculpture inform the creation of his visual works. Across media – and across decades – Washington’s works produce new meanings and messages indiscriminately, unearthly-inspirited, and with intentions bold and elusive alike.

Academic Exhibitions

B.F.A., Chouinard California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles, CA 1969

Solo Exhibitions

2020 Pucker Up, Salon 94, New York
2019 Citizen / Ship, California African American Museum
2014 Love Thy Neighbor, Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles
1973 Precedential Sculpture and Graphic Show, The Wylan Gallery, Beverly Hills
1972 Brockman Gallery, Los Angeles
1970 Galleria 32, Los Angeles

Selected Group Exhibitions

2020 Heirs to the Throne, Beverly Center, Los Angeles
2020 Object Lessons, The Landing Gallery, Venice
2019 Dust My Broom, California African American Museum, Los Angeles
2019 Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963-1983, The Broad, Los Angeles, de Young, San Francisco
2016 3D, A Contemporary Sculpture Show, The Creative House Gallery, Inglewood
2016 WATTS, The Loft at Liz’s, Los Angeles
2016 Geometrical Abstraction and Beyond, California African American Museum, Los Angeles
2015 Papillion Gallery, Los Angeles
2014 Sacred, 43rd Degnan Gallery, Los Angeles
2013 Diverted Destruction, The Loft at Liz’s, Los Angeles
2011 Places of Validation, California African American Museum, Los Angeles
2010 The Member Artists of the California Artists Coalition of Los Angeles. 7+FIG Artspace, California African American Museum
2010 Timothy Washington/Brianna Youngblood. Jack Tilton Gallery. New York City, New York
2009 Gallery 32 and its Circle. Laband Art Gallery at Loyola Marymount University
2009 Inside My Head, California African American Museum, Los Angeles
2008 Common Ground. California African American Museum
2006 Black is Beautiful. MJ Fine Art. Los Angeles, California
2005 African American Artists in Los Angeles: A Survey Exhibition: Pathways 1966-1989. Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Art Park. Curated by Dale Brockman Davis.
1990 Permanent Collection: New Acquisitions. California African American Museum
1986 Five at the Towers. Watts Towers Art Center. Los Angeles, California
1977 Artists as Teacher. Los Angeles Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Art Park. {Reviewed by Adrienne Rosenthal, “Charles White Paints Hope and Anger” Art Week 8 (October 1, 1977)
1972 A Panorama of Black Artists, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
1971 Three Graphic Artists, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles

Corporate Exhibitions

2006 Los Angeles Sentinel Gallery
1970 Illinois Bell Telephone Lobby Gallery, Chicago
1969 United California Bank, Los Angeles
1968 The City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

Permanent Museums Collections

Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Santa Barbara Museum of Art
California African American Museum of Art

Commission

1980 Mural, Ray’s Music Store, The Blues Brother Movie

Publications

2021 Los Angeles Magazine
2020 Protest Art Takes a Quiet Stand in L.A.
2020 Galerie Magazine, Artist Lofts by Frank Gehry and Chuck Arnoldi are Revived for a Special Exhibition
2020 The Art of ‘Black Is King’: Beyonce’s New Visual Album involves Today’s Best Artists and Curators
2020 Notes on Timothy Washington’s Spatial Meditations by Serubiri Moses
2020 Five Artists Tell Us The Hardships and Benefits of Creating in Isolation, Ann Binlot, Document Journal
2020 Review: Timothy Washington/Pucker Up, Joanna Fateman, The New Yorker
2020 Soul of a Nation/Art in the Age of Black Power, Tate Publishing
2019 Black Artists Claim Their Rightful Place in History in the Broad’ Soul of a Nation
2019 Artists Respond, American Art and the Vietnam War, 1965-1975
2019 The Vietnam War’s Legacy in Art, Wall Street Journal
2014 Greg Angaza Pitts, Timothy Washington, Artillery Magazine
2014 Rachel Jones, Timothy Washington, Artforum
2014 Review: A Logic that all is own, by Sharon Mizota, Los Angeles Times
2014 Mike Sonksen, Love Thy Neighbor: Timothy Washington and the Black Arts Assemblage Movement
2011 Cartwheel Art: Timothy Washington, Love Thy Neighbor, review
2011 Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum, Bridget R. Cooks. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press
2011 Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Paintings and Sculpture, 1945-1970. J. Paul Getty Museum. Andrew Perchuck et al
2011 L.A. Object and David Hammonds Body Prints. Exhibition Catalogue. Yael Lipschutz et al
2011 Civic Virtue: Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and the Watts Towers Art Center 1950-1980. Exhibition Catalogue. Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. Suzanne Muchnic