Opal Mae Ong's Solo Exhibition 'Always Were' at Plato Gallery Explores Ancestry and Grief

Opal Mae Ong is presenting her solo exhibition 'Always Were' at Plato Gallery in New York City. The show runs through April 19, 2026, at the gallery located at 202 Bowery. Ong's work explores themes of ancestry, grief, and inherited knowledge through paintings that blend Philippine folklore with personal and familial narratives. The artist, who identifies with multiple ethnic backgrounds including Filipino, Irish, German, Chinese, Spanish, and Cagayan de Oro heritage, creates works where ancestral figures appear as shapeshifters existing simultaneously in past and future realms. She employs acrylic and gouache on canvas, often using discontinued pigments and techniques like masking tape lines and alcohol rubbing to create weathered surfaces. Notable works in the exhibition include 'The Carrying' (2024), featuring a silhouette burdened by a sickle moon; 'Demands Incarnation' (2026), depicting emergence from a hollow log; and 'Walls of Amnesia' (2026), showing a figure suspended by a vine. Ong's artistic influences include Wangechi Mutu's mythological approach, Kara Walker's silhouette work, Robert Wilson's theatrical staging, and Japanese illustrator Seiichi Hiyasi. The exhibition presents grief as a dignified condition coexisting with other emotions rather than replacing them. The review was written by Lucas Moran, a Brooklyn-based artist and writer whose work has been shown across the United States and Canada.