Reception To Honor Artists Toni Toney & Sara Dismukes on November 7

Toni Toney, On your mark, acrylic on canvas, 2025, 48” x 60” 

Please join artist Toni Toney this Friday, November 7, at the Birmingham Public Library (BPL) for the opening of her exhibition Chalk Dreams Outside the Lines. Toney’s show features large-scale paintings depicting boys in quiet moments of reflection, along with smaller works based on children’s crayon drawings. The exhibition will be on view in the First Floor Gallery at the Central Library through January 23.  

Toney describes her new exhibition as “a love letter to the kids who dream big; even when the world tries to shrink them.” Inspired by her work with adjudicated youth in Montgomery, Toney says her show "honors imagination, freedom, and the stories we carry from childhood into adulthood." 

 

Toni Toney is a visual artist whose layered portraits and mixed media works explore themes of identity, memory, and transformation. Drawing from personal experience and cultural reflection, her work speaks to the inner child, the overlooked, and the everyday moments that shape who we become.  

 

In addition to her studio practice, Toni teaches art to youth at the Mount Meigs Campus of the Alabama Department of Youth Services. She holds an undergraduate degree from Troy University and a Masters in Art Education from Auburn University at Montgomery. Learn more about Toni Toney and her artwork on her website at artbytonitoney.com.  

 

The reception will take place at 3:30 p.m. in the Central Library's Fourth Floor Gallery, where an exhibition by artist Sara Dismukes - (dis)locate - is currently on view.  

Sara Dismukes, (dis)locate 3, cyanotype drawing on paper, 2025, 29" x 41" 

Montgomery-based artist  Sara Dismukes will also be honored at the reception on Friday, November 7. Her exhibition, titled (dis)locate, is on display in the skylit Fourth Floor Gallery. (Dis)locate showcases paintings, cyanotypes, ink drawings, and mixed media pieces that depict neglected manmade structures in natural landscapes. Dismukes’ show may be viewed through December 19.  

 

(Dis)locate portrays scenes of decaying roadside signs and handmade grave markers that seem to have become one with the natural world. According to Dismukes, the works reflect her fascination with “the social mediation of landscape, and how desire and disregard are manifested in objects and spaces over time.”  

 

Sara Dismukes is a multidisciplinary artist, designer, and educator. She is a Professor of Design at Troy University, where she has been on the faculty since 2006. Dismukes earned her BFA at Henderson State University and her MFA at East Carolina University. In addition to design work, she maintains an active studio practice. Learn more about Dismukes and her work on her website at cusp-studio.com. 

 

Chalk Dreams Outside the Lines and (dis)locate are the latest exhibition in BPL’s Art for Everyone series. The series is made possible by a grant awarded to the Friends Foundation of BPL by the Alabama State Council on the Arts.  

 

 Written by Margaret Splane, Library Assistant III