DAYDREAM
July 4 2026 - September 1 2026
Curated by Nick Lawrence

                        They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.

      - Edgar Allan Poe, Eleanora

DAYDREAM, our opening show of the 2026 season at Readymade Gallery in Orleans, Cape Cod, MA, features fifteen past and present participants in our DNA Artist Residency, as well as invited guests from the Cape, New York, and beyond. Readymade is the satellite space of Freight+Volume in Tribeca, NYC. 

Artists are visionaries by nature, shamans of magic and mystery, purveyors of truth in uncertain, troubling times.  The visions in DAYDREAM are various, and portray escape, fantasy and a celebration of the imagination. Both the studio and the gallery are havens of retreat and refuge for artists and their supporters; their works invite the public to share in this reverie.

To see the world in a grain of sand/And a heaven in a wild flower/Hold infinity in the palm of your hand/And eternity in an hour/...Some are born to sweet delight/Some are born to endless night/...God appears and God is light/ To those who dwell in realms of day.  - William Blake, Auguries of Innocence.

DAYDREAM is an ode to imagination, a homage to Timothy Leary's "turn on, tune in and drop out" era, to what happens when we let down our guard and let our minds drift.

Artists like Joe Diggs, Sam Bunar and Jackie Reeves use daydreams as a point of departure in their work, the moment where dreams take over from everyday life, when an artist enters "the zone" of inspiration and creative trance.  This is manifested in their work by the intersection of figure and abstraction: the daydream hovers between these two forms of expression. Reeves' graceful, almost choreographed realistic figures juxtapose themselves against pure abstract gesture.  Bunar's charcoal self portraits reach for the light, for the intangible, in arresting compositions:  reminders that the act of daydreaming is a flickering of consciousness between the shadows of sleep and wakefulness. Diggs' powerful athletes emerge from Klimt-like patterned backgrounds with a distinct charisma and flair - their message of freedom, of the MLK dream, is in the media, to paraphrase McLuhan.

Other artists depict more literal interpretations of daydreams in their paintings.  In her “Motel Series”, Chicago- based Therese Mulgrew shows us a single male figure sitting near the window, body and hands relaxed, drifting into a siesta, as thoughts dissipate and dreams descend.  Dylan Hurwitz invokes daydreams in his plein air Provincetown landscapes, studies of gay men lounging in the curves and crevices of sand dunes above the sea. A fantasy world in a grain of sand, as it were. Nancy Elsamanoudi exhibits a bucolic domestic scene of lovers in the living room, draped across the sofa - an endearing "sleepy Sunday" interaction - complete with a reclining orange Cheshire cat.  Diana Jensen's tropical landscapes on plexiglass embody travel lust daydreams - escape-to-paradise images typical of cruise ship brochures. 

Other artists depict the "wishful thinking" inherent in daydreams, where desire manifests fantasy. In Mermaid with a Message, Mary DeVincentis paints a fanciful daydream where a black suited male figure with a red tie and boots leans over a small, jagged cliff, receiving a colorful gift from a nubile green mermaid.  Max Razdow utilizes a magical form of invention, fairytale and storytelling in his exquisitely detailed drawings on paper,  to reveal the inner daydreams hidden in our psyches.

Abstraction is the vehicle that drives many artists' rendering of daydreams.  Venia Bechraki's willowy stream of consciousness drawings suggest the ethereal nature of a waking dream - fleeting visions that appear as quickly as they disappear.  

The exhibition also includes a hybrid photographic work by Peter Garfield that defies categorization.  A unique photogram of sorts,  Blast-flare Futura b depicts a euphoric and distorted face, a surreal nod to filmmaker Luis Bunuel, ensconced in chiaroscuro and hovering between dream and reality. 

Richard Neal lends us an equally mysterious rendering of a dreamlike face, painted like a silver daguerreotype on an old cookie tin, darting in and out of consciousness. 

Sarah Fuhrman takes a deep dive into the psychological and narrative elements of daydreams with her intricate Jim Nutt-meets-Hieronymous Bosch landscapes.  Works like 2026 From Dawn to Dusk, They Were the Guardians of the Spirit embody the daydreamscape as a fantastical realm for the viewer to wander and explore.

Tabitha Vevers rounds out this exhibition with two beautiful examples from her “Flying Dream series” -  Double Escape and Suzanne.  Reminiscent of religious ex-voto or retablo paintings, these delicately narrated paintings are depictions of some of her close friends' recollections of their dreams of flying. 

We look forward to welcoming you, our new and old friends, to the reception for DAYDREAM on Saturday, July 4th from 6-830pm at Readymade gallery, 11 Cove Road in Orleans. The exhibition runs from July 4th to September 1st, 2026.