Thornton Dial: From Bessemer to the Cosmos

Thornton Dial: From Bessemer to the Cosmos presents a focused exhibition of works by Thornton Dial, whose practice spanned assemblage, painting, and sculpture. Working primarily with found and salvaged materials—metal, wire, wood, industrial debris, fabric, and paint—Dial constructed layered compositions that addressed civil rights, economic inequality, war, environmental devastation, and spiritual transcendence. The exhibition title signals the breadth of Dial’s vision: rooted in Bessemer, Alabama—his hometown and a center of industrial labor—yet reaching toward universal and cosmic concerns. Dial’s dense surfaces and complex assemblages combine abstraction and figuration, often embedding symbolic imagery within richly textured compositions. His work operates simultaneously as social commentary and metaphysical reflection, bridging the personal, political, and spiritual. Presented by Edel Assanti in London, From Bessemer to the Cosmos underscores Dial’s significance within American art history and the broader canon of contemporary assemblage. The exhibition runs through 14 March 2026.