Timothy Washington

Timothy Washington (b. 1946 in Watts, California) creates assemblages that incorporate drawing, painting, and sculpture. Washington’s style developed in conversation with his L.A.-based peers including John Outterbridge, Betye Saar, and David Hammons, building off early influence from Simon Rodia’s seminal Watts Towers (1921-54), which he climbed as a young boy. Works such as Love Thy Neighbor, 1968 incorporate discarded objects found in his native L.A. Washington also sources materials from friends that go directly into his assemblages including hair, jewelry, urban debris, plastic toys, street signs, ceramic shards, and thrifted items. Washington is a notable member of the Black Arts Movement, which was led by African American cultural practitioners as the “aesthetic and spiritual sister” of the Black Power Movement, and Los Angeles Black Assemblage Movement, which salvaged rubble of the artists’ communities for creative visual production.

Washington has been included in several notable exhibitions including the solo exhibition Citizen/Ship at the California American Museum of art in 2019 and Love Thy Neighbor at The Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles.Washington is included in the collections of The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The California African American Museum of Art, and The Santa Barbara Museum of Art.