Thornton Dial is widely regarded as the most important artist ever to arise from the Deep South and is ranked among the most significant in the world today. With a retrospective currently showing at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and recent reviews in Time Magazine, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, Dial is arguably one of the most important African-American artists of the 20th century. Fueled by this chorus of critical acclaim, Bill Lowe presents Thornton Dial’s latest series entitled “Disaster Areas” – an epic look at the destructive and regenerative forces of nature and how they impact our lives. Dial’s work is a tribute to survivorship and the resiliency of the human spirit.

Unable to read or write for most of his life, Thornton Dial referred to what he made only as “things,” though late in life he found out that others call them “art.” His style is both personal and culturally rich; it speaks with a resolute voice through intense surfaces, multilayered narratives, and a metaphysical concern with issues of ancestry. These assemblages of found objects represent a pure and spiritual effort to make art’s complexities and mysteries central to the human experience.

Bill Lowe Gallery celebrates twenty-two years as the south’s gold standard in visual art with this show that Lowe describes as “monumental, breathtaking and deeply moving.” Thornton Dial’s – Disaster Areas – opens at Bill Lowe Gallery Friday, July 8th, from 6 until 9 PM in conjunction with Aspiration and Artifice, a photographic exhibit from NY artist Greg Lotus.