Dreams Lost Upon Waking

Maureen Paley is pleased to present Dreams Lost Upon Waking, the first solo exhibition of Jemila Isa at the gallery and held at our Studio M space. Working across painting and sculpture, she engages with themes of spirituality, faith, womanhood and the complexity of locating the self-amidst inherited narratives.

“The show is inspired by a dream I had in 2015, which was so vivid and visually rich that I woke up and immediately wrote it down. This exact text appears on the surface of a work, The Dream, included in the exhibition. It begins:

I dreamt that I was stood on a tall yellow hill, and beside me there was a one-legged swan. I blink twice, and the swan disappears, only then do I realise that there is an identical hill directly opposite mine. However, on this hill there is a white chapel, and in front of it stands a handsome man dressed in pink linen. No words are exchanged as we stare at each other from across our hills. But I intuitively know that the handsome man dressed in pink linen is there to be married – and that I am his bride.”

– Jemila Isa, 2026.