Featuring works by:  Marisa Aragona, David Cicerone, Mikael Gaspay, Jason Gowans, Jason Hanasik,, Dmitriy Kustov, Amy Wing Fong Lee, Liz Maher, John K Melvin, Piero Passacantando, Laura Plageman, Jessica Rosen, Gareth Spor, James Tantum, Chris Thorson, Izumi Yokoyama and collaborative works by Teresa Cunniff & Gary R. Weisberg, and Skye Thorstenson & Travis Mathews

Juried by: Clark Buckner (Director/Curator, MISSION 17)
Joseph del Pesco (Curator-at-large, Artists Space, New York)
Laura Mott (Assistant Director/Curator, MISSION 17)
Susan O’Malley (Assistant Curator, The San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art)

Wingwall Lamb, Amy Wing Fong Lee

Dreams have long been celebrated as sources of inspiration and analogues for artworks. In dreams we see that the world might be otherwise, that oppressive forces might be overcome, and that our wishes might be fulfilled. But the dreams that have driven the development of the modern world have resulted, to the contrary, in previously unimaginable nightmares. We live in a world where genocide has become commonplace, where the necessary conditions for life on earth are threatened by our own actions, and where there seems to be no limit to our exploitation of one another.

Is it naïve now to dream–a disavowal of the conflicts that in fact define our condition? Or has the need to dream become more urgent than ever?

For MISSION 17’s 5th Annual Juried Exhibition titled Dream On!–with both the sarcasm and sincerity implied by the phrase–we invited artists to submit work in response to the imperative.

 

Suddenly a Black Hole Appeared in the Centre of my Studio. So I Gathered up all my Strength and Jumped In, Jason Gowans, c-print