Born in the rural community of Emelle, Alabama, in 1928, Thornton Dial, Sr. witnessed the racism of the Jim Crow era firsthand. Yet many of his works retain a spirit of optimism, even displaying a playful sense of humor at times. This exhibition includes a range of works on paper to celebrate what exhibition curator Paul Barrett considers the cornerstone of Dial’s artistic practice.

Dial remains one of Alabama’s most critically acclaimed artists. His work was featured in the 2000 Whitney Biennial and has been the subject of major solo exhibitions in 2005, 2011, and 2022. Dial’s work can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, Studio Museum in Harlem, and Museum of Modern Art in New York; as well as the High Museum of Art; Indianapolis Museum of Art; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; de Young Museum in San Francisco; and many more. In his home state of Alabama, his work resides in the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts, Birmingham Museum of Art, Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Paul R. Jones Museum of American Art, and the Wiregrass Museum of Art. His work is currently on view in a solo presentation at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts called, "A Man Looking for Something: Drawings by Thornton Dial."

Independent curator Paul Barrett has presented Dial's artwork in group exhibitions in Alabama and Tennessee and multiple solo museum exhibitions in Alabama and Louisiana. The catalog and traveling exhibition, Thornton Dial: I, Too, Am Alabama, remains a high point in his 30-year career working with artists.