Biography
As an award-winning artist, Julee Dickerson-Thompson is known for her distinctive pen and ink works, airbrush paintings, and public art installations. A residency at Zenith Gallery’s artist colony in 1978 and subsequent participation in the inaugural exhibitions at the Evans-Tibbs Gallery and Miya Gallery, Julee’s work is featured in exhibits and collections at galleries, museums, and “alternative spaces” nationally and internationally.
Seeking to integrate influences from her experiences in West Africa, the Caribbean, and France, Julee experiments with mixed-media, soft sculpture, quilts, and doll-making. Often moving between fine art, illustrations, and literature, Julee is also an illustrator/author. Her most recognized book is The Dance of the Rain Gods, published by Africa World Press. Regardless of medium, her work incorporates themes of Womanism, peace, progressive concerns, deep spiritual symbolism, and intergenerational relationships.
Dickerson-Thompson was born in Washington, D.C. with the Smithsonian museums as her playground..The Workshops for Careers in the Arts (now Duke Ellington School of the Arts) planted seeds for her career as a fine artist. Julee continued her studies at Simmons University, Massachusetts College of Art, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Corcoran College of Art.
Resume
RECENT SHOWS
2023 – JELMA Gallery (Baltimore, MD)
2023 – Black Like Me – Zenith Gallery (Washington, DC)
2023 – Honoring the Black in US – Zenith Gallery (Washington, DC)
2023 – Friendship Gallery (Chevy Chase, MD)
2023 – The Village of African American Dollmakers – Meyers-Douglas Museum (Baltimore, MD)
2022 – Via Color – Bettye Kramer Gallery (Silver Spring, MD)
2022 – Fragile Beauty – DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (Washington, DC)
2022 – Nine Artists Nine Months Nine Perspectives – MICA Library Museum (Baltimore MD)
2022 – Nine Artists Nine Months Nine Perspectives – South Side Community Center (Chicago, IL)
2021 – 10” x 10” – Pyramid Atlantic Gallery (Hyattsville, MD)
2021 – Nine Artists Nine Months Nine Perspectives: Birth of 2020 Visions – Bob Blackburn Gallery (New York, NY)
2021– Much Out of Little – Zenith Gallery (Washington, DC)
2021 – Afro-centrism and American Kinship: A Visual Exploration – Gallery Joy
2021 – Nine Artists Nine Months Nine Perspectives: Birth of 2020 Visions – Pyramid Gallery Hyattsville, MD)
2019 – Artists & Makers - “Grassroots” [Juried Exhibit]
2019 – Smith Center for the Healing
2018 – “Portals and Doors” [Solo Exhibit] – Publick Playhouse
2017 – Past as Prologue [Solo Exhibit] – Largo Sports Complex
2016 – “Carnival” Pepco BADC Exhibit
EXHIBIT HIGHLIGHTS
2013 – 2015 Bus Boys & Poets
2012 – Brookland Temporium [Curator]
2011 – “Conversations in Dinqnesh” – Joyce Gordon Gallery (Oakland, CA)
2010 – “Sisters” Banneker Douglas Museum (Annapolis, MD)
2009 – “Songs for our Mothers” – Roxanne’s Artiques (Washington, DC)
2008 – “Black Matters” – Zenith Gallery (Washington, DC)
2007 – “ Garden of Eve’n”- Artomatic, (Alexandria, VA)
2007 – “Art DC”- Convention Center (Washington, DC)
2006 – BADC Miami Basel (FL)
2004 – The Jazz Museum – “Something for the Soul” (Kansas City, MO)
2003 – Abafazi – Simmons College Trustman Gallery (Boston, MA)
2002 – “Hair Raising Tales” – Griot Cinema (Washington, DC)
PUBLIC ARTS PROJECTS
2020-23 – Monroe Street Bridge Artscape with the Young Masters
2014 – Dance Place Public Art Award
1999-2014 – A Peace Art Odyssey –The Homecoming Bridge (w/The Young Masters)
1997 – The Magic Flute (Corcoran College of Art- VACOP)
1997 – Chimney Painting for these Child Development Center
1997 – U Street Mural (w/Washington Historical Society)
1995 – Resurrect Woodlawn! (w/ Washington Project for the Arts and DCPS)
1998-1999 – The Washington Area Food Bank Murals (w/ Akebulan Academy)
1991 – The Creation Story (w/St. Anthony School)
1986 – Children Against Apartheid (w/ Mayor’s Office and DCPS)
FELLOWSHIPS & RESIDENCIES
2015 Cuban Experience- Mosaic Tile Study/ Public Art
2005 Fellow- Virginia Center for the Creative Arts,Amherst, Va.
2002-7 Artist in Residence for Akebulan Academy ant the Anacostia Museum (Smithsonian)
1998 Artist in Residence- The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
ART EDUCATION
Workshops for Careers in the Arts (Pilot for Duke Ellington HS) 1971-1973
Simmons College 1973-1977 (B.A.)
Mass College of Art (illustration) 1973
The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (special graphics and publishing art program) 1974-1977
Corcoran School of Art (ceramic classes) 1998
Notre Dame High School 1969-73
COLLECTIONS
2023 Library of Congress,2020 DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Art Bank Collection, 2019 Montgomery County Art Bank Collection, The Roland Freeman Quilt Collection, A’leleia Bundles Madame CJ Walker Collection, DAMALI Art collection, Eloise Greenfield, Bernice Reagon, The Smithsonian Anacostia Museum, Rep. John Lewis
GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION
Essence Magazine, Black Classics Press, Simmons College, Sweet Honey in the Rock, HU Press, The Northeast Star (Premier cover) The Washington Informer, The Offices of Black Catholics, Moratorium on Prison Construction, The Black Arts Review, Black Art International Review
BOOKS
The Franny books Collection 2020 (soft sculpture-mixed media books) 2019-2020
The Butterfly Trip (written and illustrated 1981—re-published 2017)
Da’ Bomb A Peace Odyssey 2014
Dance of the Rain Gods (Africa World Press 1995)
Brown Spices ABC Book (Brown Spices Publishing 1985)
STORYTELLING
Essence Magazine 25th Anniversary Celebration, Smithsonian Museum of American History, Sidwell Friends, Concerned Black Men, Anacostia Muesum