The one-night only “Within the Dreams” exhibition of paintings by Haitian-American artist Smith Thomas will be held from 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday in the Pequot room of the Mohegan Sun Casino Convention Center.

 Admission is free, and a portion of all art sales will be used to purchase art supplies for school children in Haiti.

"Within the Dreams" is a solo exhibition and sale of acrylic-on-canvas paintings by Smith Thomas, a Haitian-born artist who is now a U.S. citizen living in Norwich. The 70-plus works in the exhibition were created by Thomas over the past two years.

Among the paintings is a collection of nine pieces that give a nod to the “Loa,” the spirits of the Haitian vodou religion. While the artist has never practiced vodou, he explains, “One does not grow up in Haiti without learning a bit about the vodou culture. During slavery in Haiti, white French masters forbade the slaves from pursuing vodou as a religion. The slaves, who were deeply attached to their African roots, began to use images of Catholic saints in their worship but each saint secretly represented one of the vodou Loa. Each Loa is also represented by a symbol called a Vévé that the colonizers would not recognize. It is these Vévé I’ve woven into my Loa collection.”