Artist Statement

Painting goes beyond the canvas…it is my approach to life. I once met Philip Guston. He showed me how he spread cream cheese on his bagel like paint on canvas, revealing what it means to live as a painter: with curiosity, sensuality, humor and the love of paint.

Bio

“I like donkeys more than horses.” This simple statement captures artist Reneé Hanan Plata’s instinct to look beyond conventional ideas of beauty and find the unexpected in imperfection.

Growing up in Montgomery, Alabama, during the turbulent 1950s and 60s, Plata lived between two worlds. A first-generation American raised within a rich dual culture, she remembers spending hours in the safety of her parents’ closet, surrounded by the comforting aromas of Sephardic food while trying to crack their safe. She now sees that childhood space—filled with curiosity, persistence, and discovery—as an early foundation for her studio practice.

Plata’s education was made possible through merit scholarships. She earned her BFA from the Atlanta College of Art and received Yale University’s Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship Grant in 1976. She later earned an MFA from Tyler School of Art at Temple University, studying in Philadelphia and Rome, Italy, followed by graduate degrees from Bank Street College of Education in New York City.

For twenty years, Plata lived and worked in New York City, maintaining an active painting practice and becoming part of a close-knit community of abstract painters. The exchange of ideas, friendships, and ongoing dialogue within this group became an important part of her development as an artist. Her work was included in Painting Up Front at Cornell University’s Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art and exhibited at venues including Westbeth Painters’ Space. A Columbia University grant later supported her photography workshop empowering nursing home residents to artistically archive their daily life, culminating in a curated exhibition at Columbia University.

A profound shift in Plata’s way of seeing came through her daughter Nadya’s diagnosis with autism. Nadya’s unique perspective introduced Plata to a different way of understanding the world and to gestalt thinking. This expanded the way Plata approached both life and her art. She returned to school to better understand her daughter’s world and later founded Puzzle Piece, a pediatric therapeutic clinic supporting children and families.

Returning to Alabama in late 1997, Plata became an integral part of Birmingham’s contemporary art community. She has established meaningful creative bonds with regional artists including the art collective at Ground Floor Contemporary as well as collaborating with Gee’s Bend Quilters. Her diverse exhibition history spans the state’s most notable cultural landmarks, with featured shows at the Gadsden Museum of Art, Space One Eleven, Scott Miller Projects, Room 412, and the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art. In 2026 she was honored with a nomination for the highly prestigious Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award.

Most recently, support from the Warhol Foundation’s Verdant Fund made her Tutu Project possible. By wrapping bright pink tutus around landmarks, monuments, trees, and people, Plata extends the curiosity and playfulness of her studio into public space, asking: “Can something as simple as a pink tutu spark shared joy in an era of division?” This provocative question anchors a project that has already captured the public’s imagination and earned widespread acclaim, seamlessly integrating her painting practice with a mission of community engagement.

Email. Reneehananplata@gmail.com