ARTIST DENNIS ASHBAUGH TO HOLD FIRST ONE-MAN EXHIBIT SINCE 1994 AT THE RALLS COLLECTION

Washington, DC (August 25, 2002) – From September 26th through October 31, the Ralls Collection will be exhibiting recent work from New York-based artist Dennis Ashbaugh. His technology and biotechnology inspired paintings, drawings, and conceptual installations are included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of Art, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, among other leading museums and private collections. Ashbaugh last exhibited at The Ralls Collection in 1993. That show has now become historically significant, as it was the first to be exhibited online.

Ashbaugh began his highly acclaimed series of DNA paintings or ‘gene portraits’ in 1987. This continuing series, represented in its latest guise on lacquered canvas squares at The Ralls Collection, illustrates Ashbaugh’s view that “biotechnology has reshuffled our concept of time by opening frightening new doors. It’s altered what we eat. It’s altered the face and future of our planet… It’s pretty hard not to be affected by these facts.” In 1991, Ashbaugh, in conjunction with author William Gibson (aka, the man who coined the term ‘cyberspace’) released Agrippa: A Book of the Dead. The book was housed in a diskette that erased passages as they were read, while Ashbaugh’s accompanying etchings were produced with two light sensitive inks, one that disappeared after an hour’s exposure to light, the other that only started to appear after it had been exposed. The novel and its illustrations received much critical praise, and were widely reported in the US media and abroad.

Says art historian and author Barbara Rose, “The heroic mode is out of fashion, but then Dennis Ashbaugh is not a fashionable painter. When the word was out that painting was dead, he did not stop painting. Now that the Apocalypse is at hand, he is preparing fo the ultimate Gotterdammerung by trying to be an even better painter. He is among those who would rather see the world end in a bang than a whimper, knowing that only sustained positive energy can successfully oppose the negativity of ‘entropic nihilism’.”

The Ralls Collection was established in 1988 as a private art dealership, and expanded in 1991 with the opening of a gallery bearing the same name. The gallery specializes in contemporary painting, photography and sculpture. Artists represented include Lynn Bianchi, Mark Dassoulas, William Dunlap, Adam Fuss, Stephen Hannock, Annie Leibovitz, Edward Maxey, Sheila Metzner, Eliot Porter, And Ulla Wachtmeister. Located at 1516 31st, NW in Georgetown, The Ralls Collection is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and by appointment.