Roll Call Opening Panel: In Conversation with Richard Dial, Roscoe Hall, and Celestia Morgan

“Roll Call: Two Hundred Years of Black American Art” opens with a conversation with Richard Dial, Roscoe Hall, and Celestia Morgan, three Birmingham-area artists featured in the exhibition, and moderated by Jade Powers, Hugh Kaul Curator of Contemporary Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art. Through photography, painting, and sculpture, the panel will explore the ways personal narrative, cultural memory, and lived experience shape each artist’s practice while reflecting broader histories tied to race, place, labor, family, and systemic inequity in the American South. Together, the artists will discuss how their works engage both personal and collective histories, transforming regional experiences into powerful contributions to the ongoing story of Black American art.
Celestia Morgan is a Birmingham-based artist whose photography and sculptural practice explores the lasting impact of redlining, displacement, and systemic inequality within Alabama communities. Rooted in her own experiences growing up in neighborhoods historically affected by discriminatory housing practices, Morgan’s work examines the intersections of geography, memory, race, and access. Morgan earned her BFA in photography from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and her MFA from the University of Alabama. Her work is included in the permanent collections of institutions including Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the Birmingham Museum of Art.
Roscoe Hall is a Birmingham-based painter and multidisciplinary artist whose work examines histories of race, identity, mortality, and social injustice through layered and emotionally resonant imagery. Drawing inspiration from artists such as Romare Bearden, Kara Walker, and Purvis Young, Hall creates fragmented visual narratives that merge personal reflection with broader historical memory. Hall received his BFA in photography from the University of San Diego and his MA from the Savannah College of Art and Design. His work has been exhibited nationally at institutions and venues including the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts, the Dallas Art Fair, and the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum.
Richard Dial is a Bessemer, Alabama-based self-taught artist whose sculptural works reflect a lifetime shaped by labor, family, craftsmanship, and creative perseverance. The son of acclaimed artist Thornton Dial, Richard developed his artistic practice alongside decades of work within the family’s metal fabrication business, Dial Metal Patterns. While often working outside the spotlight, he cultivated a distinct visual language through figurative chairs and sculptural assemblages that blur the boundaries between functional object, storytelling, and fine art. In 2025, Dial’s work was the subject of a solo exhibition at MARCH Gallery in New York City, marking a significant moment of broader recognition for his decades-long artistic practice.
Schedule of Events:
5pm: Reception
6–7:15pm: Panel
5–9pm: Gallery access
Tickets to the event are limited, and registration for members and non-members is required. Members will receive free entry to the evening’s events. Event admission for non-members, including access to the “Roll Call” exhibition, is $19.71.
Image caption: Richard Dial, courtesy of the artist (left), Roscoe Hall, courtesy of the artist (middle), and Celestia Morgan, courtesy of the artist (right).