Grace and Tenacity: James W. Washington, Jr. and the Power of Community
Grace and Tenacity: James W. Washington, Jr. and the Power of Community
Curated by: Janine Vigus
November 2, 2026 - January 21, 2027
Student Opening, Tuesday, November 10, 1-2pm
Opening Reception for Capitol Hill Art Walk, Thursday, November 12, 5-7pm
Directions to M. Rosetta Hunter Gallery at Seattle Central College
1701 Broadway, Seattle
Gallery hours: open Monday - Thursday, 10am to 3pm
Additional hours by appointment: contact meghan.trainor@seattlecolleges.edu
Rarely seen works by James W. Washington, Jr. at the M. Rosetta Hunter Art Gallery at Seattle Central College joyously depict Black space in the post-Reconstruction South and follow his remarkable journey to the diverse community of artists in Seattle he helped to forge.
Seattle Central College presents Grace and Tenacity: James W. Washington, Jr. and the Power of Community, an exhibition of rarely seen paintings by prominent Seattle artist James W. Washington, Jr. that follows the artist’s celebration of Black space across the South during an era of significant violence, to the artistic community he found and helped to create in Seattle. The show tracks three themes—the artist’s celebration of Black space, the alternative modernisms he witnessed through contact with Diego Rivera, and his process of artistic community formation in Seattle. It explores the importance of Washington’s generous approach to community building in the construction of democratic inclusion during an era of structural and implicit segregation in Seattle.
At a moment of divisive rhetoric when the lessons of the era this exhibition reviews face renewed challenges, the exhibition brings important attention to the ways in which bonds of community strengthen concepts of freedom and belonging. Examination of Washington’s life and the importance of his work is especially important for consideration of the limitations of simplistic conceptions of freedom’s meaning.
Through rarely and never-before seen works in the holdings of the James and Janie Washington Foundation in Seattle, the exhibition traces Washington’s life as evidenced in work that celebrates the power to create Black space in the interstitial places where fundamental social bonds of belonging are created and endorsed. By the establishment of educational, sacred, and community spaces, through fraught though increasingly autonomous free movement, and through public discourse, generations of ordinary private Black citizens and public leaders expanded the country’s conceptions of liberty. Paintings by several of Washington’s contemporaries—Mark Tobey, Fay Chong, Geraldine McCullough, Randy Hayes, and Tina Hoggatt are included and point to Washington’s important position in and practice of building community in Seattle.
Washington’s work evidences the powerful biography of an artist who challenged restrictions with remarkable grace, leaving an indelible mark on Seattle’s artistic and wider public in ways that both endure and are newly relevant. The exhibition traces Washington’s travels and his joyful depictions of Black space—Herodeon M.B. Church in Vicksburg, Mount Zion M.B. Church in Seattle, and family space like his mother’s room in Little Rock. It also examines the impact of his encounter with the alternative modernism of Diego Rivera’s work in Mexico City and visit to Teotihuacán. This trip presaged a change in medium as well as a shift in symbolic approach. Finally, Washington’s work joins with that of several Seattle artists to explore his creative imagining of, impact on, and interaction with the city’s artist community. Highlights include Washington’s brilliant bas-relief self-portrait, newly conserved, that recalls the visage of Assyrian royal profiles, a beautifully carved maternal figure, The Kingdom of God is Within You, and paintings of Southern and Northern Black space.
The exhibition is organized by the James and Janie Washington Foundation and is funded by grants from Ruth Arts, King County 4Culture, and City of Seattle Arts & Culture.
