PLATO

PLATO is honored to present Always Were, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Brooklyn-based artist Opal Mae Ong, opening on Thursday, March 12 with a reception from 6-8 PM. The exhibition will remain on view through April 18.

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Opal Mae Ong is a Filipino-American artist whose work emerges from a felt response to nature and a deep reverence for the otherworldly. Combining the remnants of ancestral knowledge with speculative visions, Ong’s paintings form a kind of personal myth-making. 

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Always Were takes its title from an intentional fragment. Always suggests persistence and continuity, while were gestures toward the past. The temporal and grammatical ambiguity points to the liminal nature of both the figures and the time and place they inhabit, inviting viewers to complete the meaning. Always Were presents landscapes where “feminine others” crawl toward horizons, commune with flora, carry moons and shapeshift. Drawing from Philippine folklore, including the pre-colonial babaylan—spiritual leader and healer—they depict beings who exist beyond stable gender or form