PRESS RELEASE
“The Shape of a Dream. On the Other Side of Perception”
Ten Women Artists at Discovery Art Fair Frankfurt 2026

JS Gallery presents a group exhibition exploring the dream as a form of perception and memory.

FRANKFURT / ATHENS — October 2026 — JS Gallery, an international platform for contemporary art founded by the Institute of Mediterranean Culture (IMC, Greece), will take part in Discovery Art Fair Frankfurt (29 October – 1 November 2026, Messe Frankfurt, Hall 1.2, Booth B7) with the exhibition The Shape of a Dream.

The exhibition is curated by art critic and IMC Vice President Julia Sysalova (AICA) and German-based visual artist Natalya Raduenz.

It brings together ten contemporary women artists based in Germany, Austria, Belgium, France and the USA: Elena Bax, Galina Hartinger, Nina Kruser, Marina Kulow, Eka Orba, Nonna Pidvalna, Daria Pokhylenko, Olga Shoye, Lena Stavisiuk and Vera Stein.

The Shape of a Dream is JS Gallery’s second project at Discovery Art Fair in 2026, continuing the exploration of perception begun in Cologne this spring with States of Presence. Where the Cologne project approached perception as attention directed outward, the Frankfurt exhibition reveals its other side: the dream as a form of perception turned inward. Here, dreaming does not lead away from reality; it retains it and gives it new meaning. Form becomes the place where memory and presence intersect, where the past meets the present.
Working across painting, collage, photography, ceramics, graphic art and lenticular print, the artists unfold this other side of perception along four lines.

The works of Elena Bax, Galina Hartinger, Nina Kruser and Vera Stein highlight the inner state sustained through the body and the face; the title of Kruser’s work, Jenseits (“beyond”), echoes the theme of the exhibition almost word for word. Marina Kulow and Nonna Pidvalna turn to symbol and myth as repositories of collective memory. Eka Orba and Daria Pokhylenko create organic forms that themselves become vessels.
The trace of presence, conveyed through place and object, runs through the works of Olga Shoye and Lena Stavisiuk: two empty chairs in a garden and a heap of worn shoes speak at once of events that have passed and events still to come.

This other side of perception has its own mission: it preserves wholeness and a sense of continuity where the ordinary course of life is disrupted from outside - when place, circumstances and the order of things change. The dream becomes a form in which identity endures.

“For me, The Shape of a Dream is about the way we preserve ourselves when the world around us changes. A dream becomes a space where memory, place and identity remain connected as a way of holding on to it,” says Julia Sysalova.

Natalya Raduenz adds: “The Shape of a Dream captures the moment when something intangible begins to take form. An inner response finds its expression through art, transforming emotion and lived experience into an image, making visible what cannot always be expressed in words.”

Shown at Messe Frankfurt as part of Discovery Art Fair 2026, The Shape of a Dream extends the gallery's dialogue across borders, affirming contemporary art as a shared space where diverse perspectives meet.

Exhibition information
Exhibition: The Shape of a Dream
Fair: Discovery Art Fair Frankfurt 2026
Opening: 29 October 2026, 16:00–21:00 (by invitation)
Public days: 30–31 October, 11:00–20:00; 1 November, 11:00–18:00
Venue: Messe Frankfurt, Hall 1.2, Ludwig-Erhard-Anlage 1, 60327 Frankfurt am Main, Booth B7
Curators: Julia Sysalova (AICA), Natalya Raduenz
Organiser: JS Gallery, Institute of Mediterranean Culture
Participating Artists: Elena Bax, Galina Hartinger, Marina Kulow, Nina Kruser, Eka Orba, Nonna Pidvalna, Daria Pokhylenko, Olga Shoye, Lena Stavisiuk, Vera Stein.

About JS Gallery
JS Gallery is an international art platform established within the Institute of Mediterranean Culture (Greece). The gallery works with artists of diverse national and aesthetic backgrounds. Its programme centres on questions of identity, community and belonging, approaching contemporary art as a field of intellectual exchange rather than stylistic uniformity.

About Discovery Art Fair Frankfurt
Discovery Art Fair Frankfurt is a contemporary art fair held at Messe Frankfurt since 2018. Its ninth edition in 2026 brings together more than 120 exhibitors - galleries, project spaces and independent artists from Germany and abroad.

Press contacts
Olga Shoye
oleshoy@gmail.com
JS Gallery by IMC:
info@js-gallery.com · www.js-gallery.com



JS Gallery and THE SHAPE OF A DREAM project - Publications and Mentions: DISCOVERY ART FAIR FRANKFURT 2026/ THE SHAPE OF A DREAM