Plageman, Yokonami /
PULSE New York

De Soto Gallery presented a two-person exhibition featuring works by Laura Plageman and Osamu Yokonami, pairing selections from Plageman’s Response series with Yokonami’s Assembly. In both bodies of work, the artists construct landscapes imbued with dreamlike theatricality, balancing elements of truth and fiction.

Plageman’s Response series explores the intersection of photography and sculpture. Each image begins as a traditional landscape photograph, which the artist then physically manipulates—sculpting, collaging, and assembling the print into a three-dimensional form—before rephotographing it. The resulting works oscillate between flat image and sculptural object, offering distorted, reinterpreted versions of familiar terrain. For Plageman, the landscape is an evolving entity, shaped as much by natural forces and human impact as by the camera itself. Her works hover in the space between documentation and invention, challenging the stability of photographic truth.

Yokonami’s Assembly presents quietly surreal scenes of groups of girls in matching uniforms moving in concert through natural settings. Often faceless or turned away from the viewer, the figures become part of a greater collective form. Some compositions are choreographed and performative; others capture unguarded moments of togetherness. Rooted in a reverence for balance and harmony, Yokonami’s work reflects a cultural aesthetic that values the strength of the group over the individual. Yet subtle variations in gesture and movement draw attention to individuality within the collective, highlighting a fragile tension between sameness and difference.

Together, the works by Plageman and Yokonami suggest parallel investigations of order, transformation, and perception. Whether shaped by hand or held in formation, the landscape becomes a stage on which new meanings are performed and recorded.

Laura Plageman (b. 1976, Berkeley, California) received her BA from Wesleyan University and MFA from California College of the Arts. Her work has been exhibited at galleries and institutions throughout the U.S., including Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago and Photo Center Northwest in Seattle.

Osamu Yokonami (b. 1967, Kyoto, Japan) has had recent solo exhibitions in Japan and the United States and participated in the Daegu Photo Biennial. His work regularly appears in major publications, and he is widely recognized for both his personal and commercial photography.