PLATO

PLATO is elated to present Phantasma, a group exhibition exploring imagination, dreams, and illusions in contemporary painting. Featuring works by Alex Sutcliffe, Alic Brock, Darina Karpov, Henry Hung Chang, Jamie Adams, Tang Shuo, and Vickie Vainionpää, the show will open with a public reception in our lower gallery on March 12, from 6–8 PM. It will be on view through April 18.

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Since time immemorial, great thinkers have debated the nature of imagination. According to the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, fantasy—or phantasma—represents a false appearance, an illusion that deceives the senses and occupies the lowest level of reality. Aristotle, on the other hand, believed that the image-making faculty of the soul (phantasia) makes the higher processes of thinking possible. As he wrote in De Anima, “The soul never thinks without a phantasm.”

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