Chicago based Jennifer Presant merges familiar, everyday places into mysterious landscapes. Her subjects vary from displaced household items and exposed figures in non-sensical, dramatically lit spaces. Looking at her work, we find ourselves staring into overwhemingly quiet scenes, such as an empty bedroom in the wilderness or middle of the ocean. Presant calls this mixture of environments a “visual metaphor” which symbolizes our ongoing experiences of time, memory, and relationship with physical space. Her style stems from her creative background in graphic design, where shape and color carries the response of the viewer. Architectural elements frame each composition, evoking the feeling of being inside a theater set. The result is captivating in spite of their visual simplicity. At her website, Presant states, “With these paintings, the viewer’s imagination plays an important role in the piece, while also being implicated in the voyeurism depicted”.
Dreams are considered important, real, and public in some cultures, but absurd, irrational and personal in others. Japan has its own history of dreaming, and the importance of dreams has evolved through Japanese supernatural beliefs and art for centuries. "Dreams are like strange stories," says Tokyo based artist 
Singapore-born, Los Angeles-based artist 
Ryan Bock's new immersive show at Ki Smith Gallery takes influence from the 1921 German horror film "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," transforming bed frames and other "functional items made non-functional" in a dream-like environment. We’re given an exclusive first look at "Somnambulist," which opens on Oct. 26, in this post. Installation shots for the exhibition were taken by photographer Roman Dean.