Opening April 18, 2002
The Ralls Collection Presents James F. Dicke II’s
Third One-Man Show

Washington, DC (April 1, 2002):  The Ralls Collection is pleased to present the third one-man show for Ohio based artist James F. Dicke II.  Opening April 17th, the exhibit will bring together Dicke’s most recent work, all luminous paintings exploding with vibrant color.

One can almost see an oceanside sunset or sunrise in some of Mr. Dicke’s color-saturated paintings. Others evoke the color fields of abstract expressionist Mark Rothko or the waterlillies of Monet’s Giverny.  What unifies the paintings and works on paper is the presence of the artists’ hand in the thickly applied oil paint. The surfaces all have a brushy, thick, living presence to them. Indeed, Dicke has been thinking about surface for some time. “The canvas...like so much else in the 20th century has been examined through the flat plane of the T.V. screen” muses Dicke, though instead of getting ‘closer’ to the subject as a T.V. might capture it, his work looks outward.

James ‘Jim’ Dicke was raised across the American West and Midwest and currently makes his home in Ohio.  He took his first photograph at the age of five, and later started painting extensively under the tutelage of Warner Williams and Nelson Shanks.  Dicke says he is only continuing the work of America; that is, constantly pushing boundaries and exploring new worlds within his art.  Previous shows at The Ralls Collection have centered upon Mr. Dicke’s fascination with nature and technology, specifically the interaction between the two forced by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Attention Editors: The Ralls Collection will be holding a private reception with the artist on April 17, 2002. To attend the reception or receive more information, please call (202) 342-1754. Visuals available upon request.