Alabama native Dick Jemison grew up in Birmingham. His father was an investment banker and sent
Dick to school at Choate, a college preparatory boarding school in Connecticut. On school holidays
Jemison rode the train to New York City where he visited galleries and museums. During one such sojourn
he visited the Museum of Modern Art, and was completely overwhelmed when he saw a large work by
Abstract Expressionist painter, Sam Francis (1923-1994). Such an encounter it was, that Jemison decided
that he, too, could probably “make it” in the art world. Jemison went on to college at the University of North
Carolina and then to art school, eventually earning his master’s degree from the University of Georgia.
He first credits his interest in art and his artistic eye to his mother (who was an avid art collector), then he
credits his travels, and his exposure through galleries and museums to a wide array of artists. Jemison
moved to Santa Fe, N.M., in the 1970s and then in the late ‘90s moved back to Birmingham where he currently
has a gallery and studio. He works in both sculpture and painting. He is represented in many corporate and
some museum collections.