The first major show for Thornton Dial in Los Angeles, Handwriting on the Wall, represents an ongoing curatorial choice by Blum & Poe to address what might have once been called “outsider” art of the deep South. The show is joined by another, curated by friend of Dial and fellow Southerner, Lonnie Holley—who had a solo show at the gallery in 2022—running simultaneously at the space.
Scrap metal, old clothing, paint tins, driftwood, furniture and animal bones are rendered into works rich in personal, social and political symbolism by artists without formal training who for years have been largely overlooked