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ArtsRevive has two events ongoing for the Roots and Wings Art Show and the Thornton Dial Exhibition.

The Roots and Wings Art Show can be viewed Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Sundays from 2 to 4 p.m. during the month of April.

The Thornton Dial Exhibition is now open at Gallery 905 and can be viewed Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. A special reception is scheduled for the 1st Saturday event on April 5 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in conjunction with ceramic artist Scott Bennett and curator Paul Barrett.

Born in the rural community of Emelle 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.

Bennett received a Masters of Fine Art in Ceramics at Ohio State University in 1989. He stayed in Columbus, Ohio after school, and was a prototype designer for Bath & Body Works and White Barn Candle Company for seven years. He won the Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship in 1998. He also exhibited his ceramic sculpture at galleries, museums, and art centers around the country.

In 2004 Scott moved to Birmingham, where he opened Red Dot Gallery (reddotgallery.com) with painter, Dori DeCamillis. He continues to exhibit his work nationally, and won the Alabama State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship in 2011. In 2012 he became the director of the Alabama Craft Council and was the director of the Alabama Clay Conference for 3 years. He is also a current member of Ceramic Monthly Magazine’s advisory board and continues to teach ceramics classes at Red Dot Gallery.