For Best of Graduates 2025, Bo Zhang (Gerrit Rietveld Academie) presents Feathered Dreams, a series of paintings that reflect on the small moments and quiet details of everyday life. In her work, birds often appear as companions or quiet observers; sometimes real, sometimes imagined. These paintings play with the line between what is familiar and what feels slightly off, capturing scenes that seem ordinary at first but slowly reveal something else beneath the surface. Zhang uses oil and acrylic on canvas, often starting from something she notices in her surroundings: a plant strapped into a car seat, birds gathering at a market, or a single light from a television filling a dark room. These small moments grow into paintings where colours shift, shapes blur, and perspective is gently altered. Some works imagine how birds might see the world, using bright colours and unexpected combinations to explore a view that isn’t centered on human experience. About the exhibition: Each year, the Galerie Ron Mandos team, alongside Best of Graduates curator Radek Vana, visits graduation shows across the country to identify standout artists. The exhibition provides a vital platform for recently graduated artists, introducing them to galleries, collectors, and curators.