A $15 million Compton arts center is in the works thanks to this formerly incarcerated painter

Days before the opening of his latest exhibition, “The City of Compton: Then & Now,” painter Fulton Leroy Washington — known as Mr. Wash — walked through the 14,000-square-foot property that houses his studio, an informal gallery, and event space. A courtyard ringed by a brick wall anchors the buildings, and neighbors are invited to paint on it. The space has the feeling of a community in motion.

Mr. Wash, 72, has lived in and around Compton for decades, his time interrupted by serving 21 years in prison for a nonviolent drug conviction he maintains was unjust. In 2016, President Obama commuted his sentence. When he was leaving prison, Mr. Wash told fellow inmates: “I’m going to go prepare a place for you.”

The artist is intent on fulfilling that promise. The Art by Wash Studio & Community Center, the site of a proposed $15-million facility on the artist’s property, is being designed to provide housing, studio space and support for formerly incarcerated artists with artistic talent. Its targeted opening date has not yet been set, but the exhibition, which opened March 29 at Mr. Wash’s studio, serves as a fundraiser for the construction.

The goal is to expand the property into a hybrid complex — designed by Morphosis Architects — featuring three artist studios where artists in residence will stay for six months, an art supply store, and a small-business incubator.

The vision is not simply creative. Mr. Wash sees the center as a replicable model for rehabilitation through the arts — one that begins with creative expression inside prison walls and extends, through structured support, into stable reentry. The self-taught Mr. Wash ran workshops while incarcerated, helping develop artists who might one day be among the center’s first residents.

Architect E. Sung Yi, partner-in-charge at Morphosis, described the project as still in its conceptual phase, with a timeline dependent entirely on fundraising. But he was unambiguous about what the building is meant to represent.

“All the program and components of the building,” Yi said, “are simply external versions of Mr. Wash.”

Compton Mayor Emma Sharif — herself the subject of one of Mr. Wash’s portraits, depicted alongside the city’s first Black mayor, Douglas Dollarhide — said the proposal aligns with the city’s priorities around public safety and economic opportunity.

She described the project as a “positive pathway forward” for former inmates rebuilding their lives and said efforts like this help “shift the narrative” of Compton by highlighting its “creativity, resilience and talent.”

While the city has not yet been approached about funding, Sharif left open the possibility of future collaboration.

A city in two time frames

The center is a fitting next chapter to a career that has accelerated over the last decade. In 2021, Mr. Wash won the audience award at the Hammer Museum’s “Made in L.A.” biennial and attracted the attention of gallerist Jeffrey Deitch.

The artist is known primarily for his work on portraits, with carefully chosen subjects: he painted Obama granting him clemency, which turned out to be prophetic. Other subjects include Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Michael Jackson, Kobe Bryant and Mr. Wash’s mother. Many are rendered in his signature teardrop style, where droplets hold fragments of memory and history.

The artist Fulton Leroy Washington, known as Mr. Wash, stands with some of his art at his studio in Compton. His most recent exhibition serves as a fundraiser for his plan to build a $15 million community arts hub in the city.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

With “The City of Compton: Then & Now,” he is turning that same attention from people to places. The exhibition features 16 paintings tracing the city’s past and present that capture a city in transition.

“Split-screen” canvases depict civic landmarks — City Hall, the courthouse, a high school and the local library — in two temporal states. One side reflects the past, the other captures the present.

“I just started looking at the environment I’m in right now — how much it had changed from the time that I remember as a child coming up,” he said, noting the importance of documenting history for a younger generation, including his 27 grandchildren.

In one painting, Compton City Hall appears in its earlier utilitarian form alongside its redesigned facade: an impressive modern building with white, fin-like columns arranged to resemble a mountain, an ode to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous speech. Another depicts Compton High School as it once stood, contrasted with its newly rebuilt 31-acre campus, including a football field and a performing arts center funded in part by Compton native Dr. Dre.

Mr. Wash stands with two paintings from his latest exhibition, “The City of Compton: Then & Now,” which opened at his studio in late March.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The exhibition also serves a practical purpose: bringing art collectors into a city Mr. Wash says many have never visited — and encouraging them to invest in what comes next.

“You need to create excitement,” Deitch said. “It’s a very unique situation where people can go and see the neighborhood, understand it better.”

Deitch, who said he is a fan of both Mr. Wash’s art and his dynamic personality, has helped the artist secure the Compton property by facilitating painting sales — which range from about $25,000 to $100,000 — while taking no commission.

So far, the project has been largely self-funded through art sales and Mr. Wash’s book, “Artists in Space,” a series of interviews with artists. But the gap between grassroots fundraising and a $15-million build remains formidable.

“What we really need to do is inspire individuals [and] foundations to make a very substantial contribution,” Deitch said.

A civic vision

Mr. Wash is not alone in reimagining how art can anchor civic infrastructure in Los Angeles County. Artist Lauren Halsey recently opened a large-scale sculpture park in South Los Angeles that similarly weaves together art, public space and community programming. In Compton, the approach is taking a different shape, one formed by Mr. Wash’s own experience of incarceration and reentry.

A community arts wall at artist Fulton Leroy Washington’s studio in Compton. The formerly incarcerated artist, known as Mr. Wash, invites members of the community to add their own art to the wall.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Upcoming programming includes a spoken-word event on Saturday, a concert on April 18 and a closing-night party April 25 with a film screening and DJ set by the artist’s son, Lil Wash. The goal, Mr. Wash said, is to create a place where people don’t just view art, but participate in it.

For now, he continues to build — piece by piece, event by event, painting by painting.

“This place should feel like kids playing under a water sprinkler on a hot summer day,” he said.

In the courtyard, that vision is already beginning to take shape.

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