Artist Statement/ Biography

Cullen Washington,Jr.'s current body of work utilizes objects bearing evidence of southern culture and social memory. His desire is to reconcile his specific cultural identity with the broader context of the universe. In doing so, Washington creates binary representations that signify place and space. The use of Black and white tonalities reference this tension between the individual and the universal. Conversations between social histories and cosmic esoterics create a new cosmology. Basketball hoops become black holes, catfish nets become alien motherships and wood paneling becomes nebula.

Cullen Washington, Jr. was born in Alexandria, Louisinana. He has a BA in graphic design from LSU (1994) and a MFA from Tufts University and the School of the Musuem of Fine Arts Boston (2009) in Studio Art. Cullen was one of the 2009 recipients of the Joan Mitchell MFA award for Painting and Sculpture and a resident at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2010. Cullen was also a participant at the YADDO Artist Colony. Cullen's work will be exhibited in the 2012 deCordova Biennial in Lincoln, MA and at RUSH Arts gallery in Brooklyn, New York. Cullen currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.