John Bailly in collaboration with poet Richard Blanco: Place of Mind

PLACE OF MIND
JOHN BAILLY

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The works featured in Place of Mind are the result of a two-year collaboration between painter John Bailly and critically acclaimed Cuban-American poet Richard Blanco. Blanco was named President Obama’s 2013 inaugural poet and read his original work One Today at the January ceremony in Washington D.C.

Place of Mind includes large-scale oil on canvas paintings and a selection of mixed media works on paper. Bailly’s multi-layered compositions incorporate an array of images including the depiction of maps from various cities, hand-drawn text reflecting passages from Blanco’s unpublished poems and figurative elements. The freestyle, call and response nature of the collaboration resulted in compositions that are an investigation of cultural identity, memory and the ongoing search for place for both painter and poet.