Cullen Washington, Jr. is an abstract painter. His works entitled, Primers (meaning the underlying beginning) pair ideas of skin and space, color and fields. They symbolize the underlying beginnings of consciousness, matter and humanity. The atmospheric surfaces are comprised of graphite, charcoal, ground mineral pigments and ink, a primordial mixture using the basic element carbon found in natural phenomena.
Cullen Washington Jr. is a native of Louisiana and received his BA from Louisiana State University and his MFA from Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Washington has exhibited his work nationally and internationally including: The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston; The Studio Museum in Harlem; The deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Massachusetts; The University of Michigan Museum of Art and the Saatchi Gallery, London. In addition, Washington has been an artist in residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Yaddo and Amherst College. He was the recipient of a Joan Mitchell Foundation Award and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Residency in New Orleans. Cullen’s work can be found in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Joyner / Giuffrida Collection, and the Charles Saatchi Gallery.
