You are in a fragile space-time between night and dawn. The atmosphere is drowsy, slightly daunting. The unsettling feelings from dreams and nightmares continue to loom around. You feel a pressure on your chest, and you can’t move. Both body and mind linger on the threshold of awakening in a state, where the boundary between the inner and outer world remains blurred. The light of the approaching day is a soft hint of a transition from stillness to motion, from darkness to awareness, from dream to reality.

The international group exhibition Fading Moon, Rising Light is a free sequence to the earlier project Full Moon Dreamers (Steinhauser Gallery, 2023). It further explores atmospheres, narratives and a distorted reality rooted in the mystical and surreal realms of night and dreams, focusing on the fragile moment between deep sleep and awakening known as the hypnopompic state. This brief phase, befogging the lines between mental projections and the real world, unfolds in the transition from REM sleep to consciousness. Inner visions dawdle, logic gives way, and the sense of self softens. Unfamiliar voices echo through the space; objects appear eerily familiar and, at the same time, unsettlingly strange. The atmosphere remains quietly charged – as if something happened, yet no one speaks of it.

The exhibition presents a selection of paintings and sculptures by artists from Italy, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Figurative compositions depict a range of human and mythological figures dominating the scene. Some figures are haunting and demonic; others exude a dreamlike romance. Their otherworldly forms and peculiar physical traits invite us into a realm of fantasy and imagination. Interwoven with natural motifs, surreal still-lifes, and abstract gestures, these works cultivate an atmosphere where tranquillity and tension coexist – fleeting moments juxtaposed with strikingly realistic scenes. Through emotionally charged scenes, with lavish symbolism and metaphor, the artists reveal their personal experiences and intimate narratives.

In her intimate oil paintings, Beatrice Alici (b. 1992, Venice; based in Milan) explores the bond between people and nature that appears within night scenes set in undefined historical moments and spaces. Strong heroines rise, enveloped in the mystique of darkness and moonlight, caught in passing moments inspired by folklore and mythology. Through straightforward narratives and thoughtful compositions, Alici crafts a surreal, yet historicising atmosphere that highlights her affinity to psychological depth and symbolism, evoking the sacred and the archetypal feminine.