BANGOR – “Place of Mind: The John Bailly-Richard Blanco Collaborative Project” will be featured in an exhibition opening Friday at the University of Maine Museum of Art in Bangor.

The exhibition features the mixed-media art of Bailly, produced in collaboration with Blanco, the poet who read at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration. It showcases three large-scale paintings and a selection of works on paper from the “Place of Mind” series, including three owned by the university.

Additional Photos

John Bailly’s “Los Hermanos Islets,” from his collaboration with poet Richard Blanco. Courtesy of University of Maine Museum of Art

John Bailly’s “Marco Island,” from his collaboration with poet Richard Blanco. Courtesy of University of Maine Museum of Art

Richard Blanco AP

Bailly is a French-American painter and printmaker who teaches at Florida International University in Miami. Blanco is a Cuban-American poet and teacher from Bethel.

The duo produced “Place of Mind” primarily in 2007. Bailly’s 25 works on paper and paintings complement Blanco’s poems.

“They started this project as a way to explore the creative process in different media — the visual and literary arts — and how they inform each other,” George Kinghorn, director of the UMaine Museum of Art, said in a press release. “There was a dialogue between them — a give and take, a call and response.”

The exhibit will run through June 8. For more information, go to umma.umaine.edu.

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