“Daydream Nation” Exhibition

Greenpoint Terminal Gallery

[Image: Clark Filio “Starblade" (2017) Oil on canvas, 80x60 in. ]

This event has ended.

Curated by Brian Willmont & Alison Sirico

“I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which ‘Escape’ is now so often used. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls?” - J.R.R. Tolkien

In Greek mythology, the Oneiroi were deities and offspring of Nyx, the god of Night, and directors of imagination. They were personifications of dreams and hallucinations, manifesting in human form (Morpheus), as beasts (Phobetor), and inanimate objects (Phobetor). Messengers of the Oneiroi, Daydream Nation begins by lassoing narratives of the cloud-headed. It explores Fantasy Art and the style of visual language derivative of the genre. Juxtaposing diverse representations of fiction, the exhibition grapples with the disunion of being weighed down by reality when thoughts are floating in the sky. It analyzes the dark character traits of Fantasy Art and the tension bore by the bilaterality of existing simultaneously in two worlds - one where you might not want to be.

A young energy emanates from the of the work exhuming memories of being stuck inside, in school, online, confined but hungry to explore. It reminds us of a time when being controlled and crated bred angst that was used as ammunition shot onto spiral notebooks, trapper keepers, and art forums like Deviantart. Whether it be through fan art, imaginary figures, or renditions of perverse familial scenarios, the works stand as moments of rebellion and empowering mechanisms of escape.