Lauren and Adam mine popular culture for real people’s discarded dreams, such as old lottery tickets, romance novels, baseball cards, trophies, art postcards or so-called “nudie cards”. These escapist objects form the material from which the artists re-create the faded hopes and dreams into large-scale immersive installations, sculptures, collages, videos or text-based work.
Critically exploring the role of the media in creating and fostering such fantasies in society, they confront us with our own habits of seeking comfort and hope for perfect love in movies. Their immersive work hauntingly reminds us that many of our fantasies and dreams, creating a bright future that will never exist, make us lose much more than we will ever gain.
Lauren Was and Adam Eckstrom were both born in the USA and met while attending the Rhode Island School of Design. They founded the collaborative Ghost of a Dream in 2007. Their work has been shown both in the United States and in Europe.
Adam Eckstrom
2005
Rhode Island School of Design, MFA Painting with Honors
1999
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, BFA Sculpture and Photography
Lauren Was
2004
Rhode Island School of Design, MFA Sculpture with Honors
1999
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, BFA Concentration in Sculpture
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022
Aligned by the Sun (connections), Site specific full surround installation in the departure hall at Penn Station as part of Art at Amtrak, New York, NY
If this is paradise… Geary Contemporary, Millerton, NY
sticking one’s head in a hole, does not change the horizon Galerie Paris-B, Paris, France
2021
Aligned by the Sun (through the revolution) Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, NC through July 2022
sticking one’s head in a hole, does not change the horizon Galerie Paris-B, Paris, France
2020
Yesterday is Here, MassArt art museum Boston, MA
2018
Statistics of Hope, Collaborative exhibition with artist Jen Dalton, 601 Artspace, New York, USA
I’ll be with you when the deal goes down, STANDARD SPACE, Sharon, CT art, Orthez, France
2017
At a Loss, For Words, LABspace, Hillsdale, NY
A Devil to Pay, CES Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2016
Falling From Paradise, Satellite Art Show, Miami, FL
When the Smoke Clears: The Fair Housing Project, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY
2015
A Good Run of Bad Luck, Rosefsky Gallery, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY
Better is THE END – Deep End, Wassaic Project Exhibition, USA
Gone the Sun, Galerie Paris-Beijing, Paris, France
Looking Up, Davidson Contemporary, New York, NY
2013
Day is Done, Galerie Paris-Beijing, Brussels, Belgium (catalogue)
Collapse of Promise, Zadok Gallery, Miami, Florida
2012
Forever Almost, Davidson Contemporary, New York, NY
Remember When Tomorrow Came, Colorado Springs Fine Art Center Museum, Colorado Springs, CO
Sky’s the Limit, Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, NJ
Our Favorite Pastimes, MCC Gallery, Omaha, NE
2011
we spend our lives as we spend our days, Gallerie Christoffer Egelund, Copenhagen, Denmark
Everybody Wants Some Heaven, Art First, Santa Maria Della Vita, Bologna, IT curated by Julia Draganovic
2010
The Price of Happiness, Galerie Paris-Beijing, Beijing, China
One in a Million, Vierter Stock Projektraum, Berlin, DE
Future Perfect, The Freedman Gallery at Albright College, Reading, PA
This is it, Volta 6 New York, Cynthia Corbett Gallery
2008
Ghost of a Dream, Space at Alice Rhode Island, Providence, RI
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
Masked Vigilantes Poster House, New York, NY
2021
shh, it’s a secret Postmasters Roma, Rome, Italy
Imagining Data Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, CA 2021
Decoding Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, curated by Mary Birmingham
Sunrise Sunset Albany International Airport
2020
MESS (Marker Emblem Symbol Signal), Standard Space Gallery, Sharon, CT
Coming Soon, Art Austerlitz, Austerlitz, NY
2019
Mediums of Exchange, Fiterman Art Center, Brooklyn, NY curated by Lisa Panzera
Division of Labor, The Art Gallery of York University, Toronto, Canada
Baseball Show, Tiger Strikes Astroid, New York
Dot Conference, The Yard, Brooklyn, NY
2018
Statistics of Hope, Collaborative exhibition with artist Jen Dalton, 601 Artspace, New York, NY
2017
Vagabond Time Killers, The Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY
State of the Art Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, Tennessee
State of the Art Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee
State of the Art The Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina
2016
20th Anniversary exhibition, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY
The City & The City, Denny Gallery, New York, NY
Summercamp, Galerie Paris-Beijing, Paris, France
State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now, Telfair Museum, Savannah, GA
State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now, Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN
Be My Guest, No Longer Empty, New York, NY
Sessions, Backslash Gallery, Paris, France
It’s Funny Because It’s True, Galerie Paris-Beijing, Paris, France
2015
HERE THERE NOWHERE, Galerie Paris-Beijing, Brussels Belgium
Makers Mark, Temporary Storage, Brooklyn, NY curated by Gingrow and Scoggins
And I feel Fine…, The ReInstitute, Millerton, NY
In Praise of Folly, NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, NY
The Ecstasy of Influence, Spring Break, NY
Here There Nowhere, Galerie Paris-Beijing, Brussels, Belgium
2014
State of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AK
Artist Ball, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Summertime, Galleri Christoffer Egelund, Copenhagen, Denmark
2013
SHINE, Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto Ontario
Wish Meme, at Old School for The New Museum’s Festival of Ideas, NY, NY
Homeward Found, Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY
Debris Field, Castle Gallery, College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, NY
2012
How Much do I Owe You? No Longer Empty, LIC, NY curated by Manon Slome
Summertime, Gallerie Christoffer Egelund, Copenhagen, Denmark
Return to Rattlesnake Mountain, Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY
HOPELESS, DUMBO Arts Festival, DUMBO, NY
Trash Talk, Spattered Columns Art Connects, NY, NY
COME AND GET IT, Hendershot Gallery, NY, NY
2011
Art Prize, Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, MI
A Strange Attraction to the Beautiful and the Dreadful, Hendershot Gallery NY, NY, curated by Maureen Sullivan
2010
Exhibitionism-The Art of Display, The Courtauld Institute, London, UK
2009
Fly By’s, Galleri Cristoffer Egelund, Copenhagen, Denmark
Young Masters, Cynthia Corbett Gallery, London, England (catalogue)
Will it Happen, Elga Wimmer Gallery, NY, NY
Word Up, Broadway Gallery, NY, NY
2008
In other Words, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA-This is not New York, This is Berlin, Salon Mastul e.V., Berlin, Germany
Inaugural Exhibition, DIEU DONNU+00C9, NY, NY
Suckers and Biters, Chashama Gallery, NY, NY (catalogue)
Devotion Reconstructed, Broadway Gallery, NY, NY
2006
RISD Biannual NYC, Exit Art, NY, NY, curated by Robert Storr
Two Continents and Beyond: Waterways, Istanbul Biennale, Istanbul, Turkey
Flora, South Bend Regional Museum, South Bend, IN
AWARDS, GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
2023
Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Rauschenberg Residency, Captiva Island, Fl
2021
International Studio & Curatorial Program, Alumni Residency
2020
Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Rauschenberg Residency, Captiva Island, Fl
2018
Facebook Artists in Residence
College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University, spring artists-in-residence, Collegeville, MN
Artist Resource Trust Grant
2017
Joan Mitchell Foundation Artist-In-Residence Program New Orleans
2016
Business Accelerator Grant, The Clark Hulings Fund
International Studio & Curatorial Program, funded by The Pollock- Krasner Foundation
2014
Process Space, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council five-month A.I.R., Governors Island, New York
2013
Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, NY, NY
Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, NY, NY
Jerome Foundation Grant, (gifted through Smack Mellon), Minneapolis, MN
La Napoule Art Foundation, funded A.I.R., Mandelieu-La Napoule, France
2012
Smack Mellon, year long funded studio program, Brooklyn, NY
New York Foundation for the Arts Emergency Grant, NY, NY
Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, three-month funded A.I.R., Omaha, NE
2011
Hot Picks, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY
Wassaic Project Artist Honorarium, Funded by Dutchess County Arts Board NY
Voted top installation at Art First, pole by the Corriere Di Bologna, Bologna, IT
2010
Vierter Stock Projektraum, Berlin, Germany 2-month A.I.R. Funded by US Embassy
2009
The Art Prize, Young Masters and AXA Insurance, London, UK
IAAB, six-month funded A.I.R., Basel, Switzerland
2008
Artist Projects, RISD, Material grant and student labor to make an installation
Oxbow Fellowship (re-granted from The Joan Mitchell Foundation) NY, NY
City Sol, Material Grant, NY, NY
D.U.M.B.O. Improvement District, Material Grant, Brooklyn, NY
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2015-Present
Founded and run the curated artists exchange program ArtForArtists
2017
For Words, LABspace, Hillsdale, NY
2015-16
Co-founded of an annual 1-month artist-residency in northern Italy ArtGarda
2015
Day becomes Night, The Re-Institute, Millerton, NY
2013
AKA, Davidson Contemporary, New York, NY
In the Details, Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY
2013
AKA, Davidson Contemporary, New York, NY
In the Details, Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY
2012
Another Side, The Re-Institute, Millerton, NY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2018
Collection & Collage: in the Studio with Ghost of a Dream, a short documentary by Southern
Foodways Alliance in partnership with 21C Museum Hotels
The Green Cube, Canadian Art, September
Betting on the American Dream in Statistics of Hope, Filthy Dreams, March 29
2017
A Devil To Pay- Ghost of a Dream at CES Gallery, Art and Cake, February 23
State of the Art at Mint Museum Uptown, Charlotte Magazine, May
‘State of The Art’ Compiles Cream of the Contemporary Scene, USA Today, January 27
2016
Considering the Environmental Damage Done by Art Fairs, Hyperallergic, October 18
Covering the Waterfront, ArtFCity, October 6
Ghost of a Dream’s New Installation at Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, BlouinArtinfo, September 15
The Art of Interiors, Galerie Magazine, Fall issue
A Door Shattering Breakthrough at Denny Gallery’s Pop Up, ArtFCity, July 8
9 Must-See Summer Group Shows, Artnet News, June 30
When Innovative Art Meets Traditional Surroundings, Huffington Post, April 26
Leftover Lottery Tickets Turned Into Stunning Art, Good Morning America, April 22
‘Be My Guest: The Art of Interiors’ exhibit transforms, The Editor at Large, April 20
Empty Manhattan Apartment Transformed Into Work of Art, Architectural Digest, April 20
What Happens When Artists Take Over an Upper East Side Mansion, W Magazine, April 5
Be My Guest: The Art of Interiors- Seven Artists, ArtfixDaily Artwire, March 21
New Minneapolis Institute of Art exhibit is all-American road trip, Star Tribune, February 19
New Jepson Center Exhibit Celebrates Contemporary American Artists, Savannah Morning News, February 20
2015
5 Female Artist Break the Glass Ceiling at ADAA, ARTSY, February 25
The Wassaic Project: A Festival, Beautiful Flood, and Now Art, New York Times, March4
Desires, Dreams, and Excess, ARTFILE MAGAZENE, February
Emission de la Semaine #58, TCQVAR, February 16th
Ghost of a Dream. Gone the Sun, a la Galerie Paris-Beijing, France Fine Art, February 8
2014
Ghost of a Dream. Gone the Sun, anti-utopias, December 22
Pulse Dives Into New Waters in Miami Beach, Blouin ARTINFO, December 4
Piecing Things Together at PULSE Miami Beach, HYPERALLERGIC, December 8
Pulse launches 10th year with move to Miami Beach, Miami Herald, December 4
Kim Rugg and Ghost of a Dream Stand Out at PULSE, NewYork Observer, December 4
AMERICAN BEAUTY, Vogue Magazine, August issue
BROOKLYN ARTIST BALL SETS THE TABLE, Interview Magazine, April 17
At the Brooklyn Artist Ball, Gallerist/Observer, April 18
The Brooklyn Artists Ball Had It All, Bedford and Bowery, April 17
Highlights From The Brooklyn Artists Ball, Art F City, April 21
Night at the Museum, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 17
Ghost of a Dream, The Glamourai, March 26
2013
Jour de Chance, Arts Libre, La Libre Belgique, Brussels, BE, December 20
GHOST OF A DREAM, Le Soir, Brussels, BE, December 21
HAUNTING AND COLLECTING, Agenda, Brussels BE, December 5
Get Lucky, Marie Claire, Brussels, BE December
Cinquante degrés Nord, Arte Belgique, Brussels, BE, December 4
Entre Triomphe et Tragedie chez Paris-Beijing, FEEVER, Brussels, BE, November 26
reative Time’s Sandcastles Return, Rockaway Beach, Art In America, August 13
Creative Time Sandcastle Competition, Art F City, NY, NY, August 12
Second Annual Creative Time Sandcastle Competition, Time Out NY, August 12
Creative Time’s Sandcastle Competition, W Magazine, August 12
Lottery Ticket Sculptures ‘Ghost of a Dream’, Huffington Post, May 20
2012
Seven Deadly Sins, Beautiful/Decay, Fall
Recommended GO Brooklyn Studio: Ghost Of A Dream, ART F CITY, September 7
London Show Draws Winners, The Independent, London, UK, January 19
Watch the Birdie, The Metro, London, UK, January 18
In Your Dreams, Phoenix, London, UK, February issue #6
Ghost of a Dream Remember When Tomorrow Came, Artlog, February 15
Why Weren’t You in Wassaic This Weekend?, hyperallergic.com, August 8
2011
The Wassaic Project: Our Favorite Art, Village Voice Online, August 8
Collectors Call, ARTFORUM online, May 6
Giant Sculptures Made From Lottery Tickets, Wired UK, August 5
2010
Luck of the Draw, City Weekend, Beijing, China, October 28-November 10
Husband-and-wife ‘found’ art team’s exhibition weighs The Price of Happiness, Global Times, Beijing, China, October 12
Dream Ticket, World of Interiors, July
VOLTA NY: Ghost of a Dream, Whitewall Magazine, March 5
The American Dream as Illusion, The Reading Eagle, Reading, PA, March 28
Medium Voltage, ARTINFO, March
The Art of Discarded Lottery Tickets, Yatzer.com, August 4
2009
Award-Winning Artist Master Raphael and Durer, The Independent, London, November 13
Young Masters, Art of England, Issue 63
Scope Basel, Premier Art Scene Magazine, 2009
Top 10 Artists at Art Basel, Volta and Scope, Satchi.com, June 10
2008
Time Out New York, NY, NY, December 18-31
For Biennial Fans, Providence Journal, Providence, RI, March 6
Dream Ride, Intersection Magazine, Spring Issue
Lottery Tickets become Dream Car, Providence Journal, Providence, RI, March 18
-
Group show
SUMMER CAMP
07/02/2016 - 07/30/2016 -
Group Show
IT’S FUNNY BECAUSE IT’S TRUE
01/28/2016 - 02/27/2016 -
Group Show
HERE THERE NOWHERE
03/14/2015 - 04/18/2015 -
GHOST OF A DREAM
GONE THE SUN
02/07/2015 - 03/14/2015 -
GHOST OF A DREAM
DAY IS DONE
11/21/2013 - 01/18/2014
INTERVIEW OF GHOST OF THE DREAM
GHOST OF A DREAM
Press release by Galerie Paris-Beijing
The Galerie Paris-Beijing is pleased to present a comprehensive insight into Ghost of a Dream’s most recent developments within their artistic practice, which invites us to reflect on today’s escapist society and its cultural aspirations.
The New York-based collaborative Ghost of a Dream, comprised of sculptor Lauren Was and painter Adam Eckstrom documents and critically explores the futile hopes and dreams of contemporary materialist society that is constantly on the search for a newer, better life. Their work focus on the different activities people de- lusively engage in to realize their dreams of instantaneous gratification: from gambling to reading romance novels or watching romantic movies. Was and Eckstrom mine popular culture for real people’s discarded dreams, such as old lottery tickets, romance novels, baseball cards, trophies, art postcards or so-called “nudie cards”. These escapist objects form the material from which the artists re-create the faded hopes and dreams into large-scale immersive installations, sculptures, collages or text-based work. Their show in the Galerie Paris-Beijing plays with the bitter discrepancies between fantasy and reality and asks to which expense the universal (and often simultaneous) quest for wealth, success and perfect romance actually comes.
The fine line between appearance and reality is tested in Ghost of a Dream’s series of collages, sculptures comprised of countless strangers’ competition trophy bases, or in their site-specific wall drawings. In Triumph and Tragedy (2013) we are reminded that “One man’s loss is another man’s gain”: closer inspection reveals that the word we read from a distance, ‘Triumph’, in fact consists of the one same word that is written over and over again like a mantra: tragedy.
A similar unsettling discovery is inherent within the diametric contradiction of what from afar appears to be a drawing of a sunset, yet upon closer inspection reveals to be no more than countless multi-colored lines of the word “tragedy” (Tragedy Sunset 2013). Sunsets represent the moment of perfect, lasting romance, yet rarely live up to what the promise. For their multi-media installation This mess between us (2013) Was and Eckstrom scoured through numerous films to amass a digital archive of sunsets that play on an loop on countless television sets. Critically exploring the role of the media in creating and fostering such fantasies in society, they confront us with our own habits of seeking comfort and hope for perfect love in movies. Their immersive work hauntingly reminds us that many of our fantasies and dreams, creating a bright future that will never exist, make us lose much more than we will ever gain.
Lauren Was and Adam Eckstrom were both born in the USA and met while attending the Rhode Island School of Design. Eckstrom received a MFA Painting (Honors) in 2005 and Was a MFA Sculpture (Honors) in 2004. Their collaboration began in 2006 when they became intrigued by the question of what people dream about when they buy a lottery ticket. They founded the collaborative Ghost of a Dream in 2007 and a year later made their first piece in the Easy Money series, The Dream Car. Their work has been exhibited in Europe, China and int the USA and also has been featured in The Guardian (London), The Independent (London), Time Out (New York), and ArtForum.com among other publications. Ghost of a Dream have had various residencies in Germany, Switzerland, USA and France. The collabo- rative has been the recipient of the 2013 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and the Jerome Foundation grant and received the first annual Young Masters Art Prize in London in 2009. They have had solo exhibitions notably at the Hunterdon Art Museum, New Jersey (2012) and were featured in group shows at the Courtauld Institute of Art (2009).
Better Odds Through Art: Ghost of a Dream Take On the Global Lotto Machine
Christian Viveros-Fauné
Some artists wait around for their retrospective. Others, like the young collaborative team of Lauren Was and Adam Eckstrom, a.k.a. Ghost of Dream, design their own survey. A reflection on “what we’ve done and how we got here,” their new exhibition, “Day is Done,” presents older styles of their work in brand new guises. Lurid but thoughtful, their most recent display mulls over this duo’s signal triumphs and failures (thematically, at least, they could be one and the same). It also proposes novel ideas for instantaneous overnight success. They’ll come in handy for picking a “winner” — if you still believe such a thing exists after seeing their show.
SFeaturing large-scale and discrete pieces made from Lady Luck’s recycled leavings, Ghost of a Dream’s current exhibition sources its material straight from the global fantasy factory. Drawn from sources like casinos (playing cards), convention centers (carpet), corner delis (lottery tickets), sports shops (the discarded marble bases of old trophies), the inspirational and easy reading sections of cheap bookstores (self-help and romance novels), and Lalaland itself (video clips of old movies and songs), their many found objects are repurposed as sculptures, collages, room-sized installations, and moving image and auditory works. Taken together, they sound a uniformly brassy Wah-Wah note — like the losing wail on The Price Is Right. Despite their peppy peacock coloring, these works advertise something other than scratch-off happiness and rosy dreams deferred. Instead, they brutally pump the pathos of $1.50 ambitions, ideals crumpled, illusions trashed, and dreams roughly and cruelly trampled underfoot.
SThough Ghost of Dream very much enjoys mixing and matching cast-off items for their aesthetic value, the artists rely chiefly on simple language to establish their complex conceptual conceits. One set of works on view, for example, features the words “Triumph” and “Tragedy” written out explicitly in modest marble slabs. Another, a drawing, assembles more than 700 bank slogans (HSBC, for example, publicly purports to be “Your local bank”) into a large panel spelling out the word “Trust.” A third instance of the duo’s use of text is reflected directly in the show’s title. Taken from the tune Taps — the song’s mystery lyrics laconically intone “Day is done, gone the sun… God is nigh” — its canned sentiment suggests two alternate meanings for the pair’s sprawling effort. In Churchillian terms, “Day is Done” announces the world’s current economic and artistic blitz — as evidenced by, among other phenomena, massive income inequality and the present market for blue-chip art — to be, at present, either at the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning.
SFew ideas today could appear more fustily rhetorical. A bald-faced manifestation of the status quo, Ghost of a Dream effectively reframes the willing confusion engendered by this go-along “Day is Done” attitude by recycling “triumphs” and “tragedies” into a larger, collective mosaic. Their exhibition, in a nutshell, represents thousands of instances of misplaced trust and ill fortune for which there will be no second acts. A multipart picture, it also constitutes an oddly itemized, harshly condemnatory, ultimately empathetic portrait of our merciless get-rich-quick age.