You don’t ask a beautiful question with your strategic mind. That’s needed, but the last place it gets articulated. You ask it with your body. You ask it with your longing. And you can ask a beautiful question in complete silence with no verbalization whatsoever, just in the way you’re paying attention.
-David Whyte
Tal Placido’s large-scale abstract paintings begin with a conversation. Instead of working on blank primed canvas, Placido paints on vintage linens, embracing their stains, snags, and embellishments. A native of the Philippines, Placido is attuned to the family stories and lived experiences that she literally weaves into her work. The images she presents in Meeting Place are a record of the dialogue between experience-laden objects and an artist more concerned about thoughtful questions than concrete answers.
Placido takes the methodology for Meeting Place from the work of poet David Whyte, who frequently discusses the idea of beautiful questions, in which the quality of a question affects the depth and direction of the answer that follows. Placido’s paintings ask beautiful questions about cultural inheritance, embodied knowledge, and the moments of contact that shape identity. Her background in music, fashion, and design also adds depth to this multilayered approach, adding richness and nuance to her work.
Tal Placido: Meeting Place is part of the Everson CNY Artist Initiative, an exhibition program that celebrates the multi-faceted talents of regional artists. The Everson is supported by the General Operating Support program, a regrant program of the County of Onondaga with the support of County Executive, J. Ryan McMahon II, and the Onondaga County Legislature, administered by CNY Arts; and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
