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“Dearest” by Artist Zeinab Diomande

Staff — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 13:00:57 +0000

Dearest by Zeinab Diomande is a zine presenting a collection of paintings that, while not a formal series, share a cohesive visual language exploring themes of liquidity and the passage of time, achieved through the use of thinned paint and water. The pieces employ texture as a storytelling device, reflecting the rituals and ceremonies of the artist’s alter egos within imagined worlds.

Zeinab Diomande on Instagram

“Eternal Return” by Photographer Benjamin Young

Staff — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 13:00:25 +0000

Benny Young

Benny Young’s Website

Benny Young on Instagram

“Broken Vessels” by Artist Cindy Bernhard

Staff — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 13:00:27 +0000

Cindy Bernhard

PLATO is honored to present Broken Vessels, a solo exhibition by Chicago-based artist Cindy Bernhard, featuring a new body of paintings that explores spiritual rupture, transcendence and the relationship between the human body and the divine. The public opening is scheduled for Thursday, June 4, from 6 to 8 PM in the gallery’s ground floor space. The show will be on view through July 11. At the center of the exhibition is the metaphor of the vessel: the body as a container for spirit and belief. Drawing from archetypal associations between gold and divinity, Christian mysticism and contemporary existential anxiety, Bernhard’s monumental six-foot paintings depict fractured golden forms that stand in for humanity itself — wounded, imperfect, yet still capable of transformation.

Cindy Bernhard’s Website

Cindy Bernhard on Instagram

“Traumstadt” by Photographer Grace Dodds

Staff — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 13:00:38 +0000

Grace Dodds

Grace Dodds’s Website

Grace Dodds on Instagram

20+ projects brought to life through the Book Award

Staff — Fri, 29 May 2026 17:20:44 +0000

Photography Spotlight: Alex Bruno

Staff — Fri, 29 May 2026 13:00:05 +0000

Alex Bruno

Alex Bruno’s Website

Alex Bruno on Instagram

“We’re Just Here for the Bad Guys” by Photographer Brian Van Lau

Staff — Wed, 27 May 2026 13:00:57 +0000

We’re Just Here for the Bad Guys chronicles Brian Van Lau’s relationship with his estranged father. Lau’s father was absent during his childhood due to his incarceration. After his release, he rebuilt his life in Vietnam, remarried, and gradually disappeared from Lau’s life. Nearly a decade later, Lau traveled to Vietnam following his father’s sudden illness, and learned of his terminal cancer. During their final week together, they collaborated on a photographic project that documented his father’s unsuccessful path toward recovery. After his father’s passing, Lau returned to his hometown in Hawai‘i seeking closure, uncovering hidden correspondence that revealed previously unknown parts of his father’s life. Entrusted with dispersing his father’s ashes across O‘ahu, the artist began working with his grandparents to reconstruct this fragmented family history through photography. Brian Van Lau is a self-taught photographer currently based between Honolulu, HI and Los Angeles, CA. His work is about finding fictitious evidence. His first monograph, We’re Just Here For the Bad Guys, was published by Light Work in 2026, alongside a solo exhibition of the same name, and Oracle in the Aperture, a group show curated under his press and platform, Arcanite Pictures. He is a 2025 Penumbra Workspace Artist-in-Residence, a 2024 Google x Aperture Creator Labs Fund recipient, a 2023 Aperture Portfolio Prize Runner-up, and founded Arcanite Pictures in 2022, an online platform and project space dedicated to highlighting emerging lens based artists. His work has been featured in The Atlantic, Vogue, The New York Times, Aperture, and many more.

Brian Van Lau’s Website

Brian Van Lau on Instagram