City of Dreams brings together the work of Valeri Larko and John Kuo, two artists whose practices explore the urban environment through vastly different yet complementary perspectives. Larko’s immersive, on-site paintings capture the shifting landscapes of New York’s industrial edges; bridges, trestles, and abandoned structures; while Kuo’s surreal, figurative sculptures navigate the transient experience of city life, shaped by memory, migration, and the search for belonging.

For Larko, the city is a living history, its forgotten spaces revealing layers of change, decay, and resilience. Her meticulous plein-air paintings document these sites before they vanish, preserving the overlooked corners of an ever-evolving metropolis. Kuo, in contrast, approaches the city as a dreamlike aquarium, where people and places drift in and out of focus, their lives intersecting in fleeting, enigmatic moments. His sculptures merge urban elements with the human form, creating fragmented narratives that reflect both presence and absence, connection and isolation.

Together, their work forms a dialogue between permanence and impermanence, the remembered and the ephemeral. City of Dreams invites viewers to consider the layered, often unseen realities of urban life; the stories held within its walls, its windows, and the people who move through them.