When dreams dissipate
2025.09.13 - 2025.11.01
Artist: Albie Romero
Curator: Haoyang WANG
On a gloomy afternoon, two voices echo through the white space you are in.
「When was the last time you had a nightmare?
It seems like it was quite recently. If I try to trace it back, I only remember a period when I had nightmares almost continuously for two months.
What was in those dreams?
Some were “I am not going back into that room,” and others were “Where I may return.”
Is there any dream that left a particularly deep impression on you?
Let me think... Ah, it was those hollow eyes staring back at me.
Could you describe them?
Why not take a look at the paintings on the wall?」
Nightmares occur without rehearsal or warning. 「When dreams dissipate」 people examine the remnants of dreams carried into daylight — the scenes within dreams feel detached from reality, as if belonging to another world. The artist presents such an inverted world in his works, creating an emotional landscape of alienation and desolation.
This exhibition, ‘When dreams dissipate,’ is Albie Romero’s first solo show, featuring over ten works created between 2024 and 2025. The exhibition will be held from September 13 to November 1, 2025.
Albie Romero is an artist deeply influenced by the medium of photography. Introduced to it by his father in his childhood, he developed a fascination with capturing moments — a fascination that now forms the core tone of his painting practice. His creative process begins with photographs he takes using both digital and film cameras. Over time, his work has incorporated more elements of surrealism and depictions of his own dreams, often executed in oil on wood or aluminum panels. The artist’s style is characterized by a distinctive blurriness, reminiscent of the texture of old photographs and the haziness of dreams. When viewers approach the works, they discover a more painterly and realistic technique.
Art has become an emotional bridge between the artist’s dreams and reality. Following an emotional trauma, he began infusing his works with places and fleeting memories shared with a loved one. Dreams are primarily the lingering emergence of daytime thoughts and actions within the soul. Rather than merely depicting single photograph has transient memories, his recent works show a stronger narrative and sequential quality drawn from dreams. This shift reflects a deeper engagement with his inner world — the dreams he expresses may reflect his perspective on his environment, serving as a subconscious commentary on his reality.
For Albie, painting transcends the mere act of creation; it is a process of catharsis, a form of meditation that brings spiritual fulfillment and healing. He intentionally leaves the interpretation of his works open-ended. In the final presentation, the dreams within the paintings cannot be fully deciphered — dreams always retain their characteristic "condensation," where meanings and metaphors intertwine with multiple hints from a certain period. The artist uses painting to record a specific image from a dream. Must it be analyzed? The answer is likely no.
