Jamey Grimes. Merge IV, 2007. Mylar, acetate, transparency film, thread. Courtesy DFAC.

This week in Creative Loafing:

These days, it’s hardly an exaggeration to call the evening news the stuff of nightmares. Between the implosion of Wall Street and the prospect of the other guy winning the election, the current state of national affairs might be enough to have you waking up in a cold sweat. Floridians in particular — at the mercy of an economy dependent on the battered industries of real estate and tourism — could use a good reverie to distract us from the horrors of reality.

Luckily, the Dunedin Fine Arts Center’s latest exhibits offer a palliative in the form of dreams. In three complementary exhibits, works by about a dozen artists explore the pleasures of fantasy, from aspirations of world peace to idealized reminiscences of childhood. (A fourth exhibit showcases dreamy artwork by Pinellas schoolchildren and a fifth invites kids to engage in hands-on activities related to the theme.) Even bad dreams come up for the artistic treatment, but fear not — the worst of them isn’t half as bad as what’s happened to your 401K this year. Read more>>

Post-script: Now that I’ve had another week to reflect on this show, I think my favorite pieces in it are Jamey Grimes‘ wall-mounted sculptures made from corrugated plastic. It’s a simple thing, but I keep returning to the tension between their lovely, ethereal shapes and the toughness of the industrial material. Yum.