“THE WELL OF DREAMS” ADRIAN COX
““In The Well of Dreams, imagination isn’t escape — it’s a form of survival.””
On February 21, 2026, Los Angeles’ influential New Contemporary art space Corey Helford Gallery unveils a major new solo exhibition by figurative surrealist painter Adrian Cox. Titled The Well of Dreams, the exhibition presents more than twenty new paintings and marks the artist’s fifth solo presentation with the gallery — a milestone that reflects his growing importance within contemporary pop-surrealist and narrative painting.
Running through March 28, 2026, the show situates viewers inside an immersive mythology — not simply a collection of paintings, but an entire symbolic universe.
A Painted Mythology, Not Just an Exhibition
Cox doesn’t approach painting as documentation of the real world. Instead, he builds one.
Across years of studio practice, the Los Angeles-based artist has constructed a fictional realm called the Borderlands — a psychological and spiritual terrain that exists somewhere between dream, memory, and consciousness. Within it live “Border Creatures,” hybrid beings who are part human and part landscape. They are caretakers, artists, scientists, and mystics whose existence is deeply intertwined with nature.
Their antagonists are the Specters — cold blue entities of pure energy who move through the world without connection, burning the environments they traverse. The tension between the two becomes a metaphor for two modes of living: participation versus extraction, relationship versus consumption.
Cox’s paintings are therefore less about fantasy and more about identity, belonging, and ecological consciousness. His influences range widely — art history, mythic archetypes, science fiction, and his personal experience growing up within a closeted queer family — all distilled into luminous oil paintings that feel simultaneously ancient and futuristic.
The Story of Maker and the “Cosmic Wound”
At the center of The Well of Dreams is a narrative arc.
The exhibition follows Maker, a sculptor wounded by a Specter’s arrow while attempting to open a portal into the void. The injury — referred to as the Cosmic Wound — cannot be healed through ordinary means. Instead, the Border Creatures guide Maker into a dream pilgrimage through the “Labyrinth of Unknowing.”
The journey becomes a psychological and spiritual descent: haunted forests, mental wastelands, and inner landscapes that represent the subconscious mind. What Maker ultimately discovers is not a cure, but transformation. The wound becomes a source of creative power.
Cox frames creativity itself as alchemy — the act of turning pain into meaning.
Painting Through Ritual and Subconscious Process
One of the most fascinating aspects of the exhibition is how the paintings were created.
Rather than working strictly from sketches, Cox used experimental and surrealist techniques. He assembled narratives using a variation of the cut-up method, randomly arranging fragments of text drawn from books, Holy Grail legends, and his own dream journals. Other works emerged from “active imagination” meditation sessions conducted before a personal installation he built in his studio called The Altar of Unknowing.
Accompanied by ambient soundscapes he composed (The Well of Dreams Cycle), the process blurred painting with ritual.
For Cox, imagination is not escapism — it is a way of engaging with reality. The exhibition proposes that inner worlds are as significant as external ones and that creative play is a deeply human form of meaning-making.
““These paintings feel less like images and more like portals.””
A Surrealist Meditation Experience
The exhibition extends beyond the walls of the paintings.
On March 7, 2026, the gallery will host The Ritual of Unknowing: A Surrealist Meditation Experience — a live performance and guided meditation led by Cox himself. Visitors will sit before the altar installation while listening to his sound compositions, effectively stepping into the same mental space where the artworks originated.
The event was developed during a period of creative burnout and became a personal wellness practice for the artist — a detail that resonates strongly in a contemporary art world increasingly intersecting with mindfulness and psychological healing.
Why Adrian Cox Matters Right Now
Cox occupies a unique position in contemporary art. His work exists at the intersection of:
Pop Surrealism
New Figurative painting
Myth-based storytelling
Psychological symbolism
Critics often describe his paintings as “doorways” rather than images — invitations for viewers to construct their own meanings. Instead of instructing interpretation, the artist intentionally leaves narrative space open, encouraging personal reflection.
In a cultural moment dominated by speed, screens, and algorithmic attention, The Well of Dreams feels almost radical: slow, contemplative, and deeply interior.
It asks a simple but profound question — what happens when imagination is treated not as distraction, but as a form of spiritual practice?
Visiting Information
Adrian Cox — The Well of Dreams
Corey Helford Gallery
571 S. Anderson St., Los Angeles, CA 90033
Opening Reception: February 21, 2026 (7:00–11:00 PM)
Exhibition Dates: February 21 – March 28, 2026
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 12:00–6:00 PM
More than a traditional gallery show, The Well of Dreams operates like a narrative environment — a psychological landscape viewers enter rather than observe. Through symbolism, ritual process, and luminous figurative painting, Adrian Cox transforms surrealism into something surprisingly intimate.
The exhibition ultimately suggests that creativity is not decoration or entertainment. It is a survival mechanism — a way humans metabolize experience, trauma, identity, and hope.
In Cox’s Borderlands, wounds are not erased.
They become portals.