AMERICA DREAMING
Mook Simpson solo at Copro Gallery, Bergamot Station, August 15th – September 4th 2026

Dreams are weird, and hard to remember too. They splice things that really happened with stuff that definitely didn’t – the same loose connection-making that great images can come from. America’s history and myths are the foundation of how America dreams. 

Sometimes you wake from a dream and reach for what happened, and it’s already mixed up, gone soft at the edges. 

There’s a sense of loss in watching it slip away.

“America Dreaming” plays with the mechanics of how memory and myth work on our sense of current reality. The foundational paintings of American history sit in the tin that holds the country’s backstory, I prize the lid off and let a little pressure out. Mixing classic imagery from Manifest Destiny, westward expansion and cowboy legend with characters that are delightful but ominous, the show scrambles anxiety, memory and mythology into something delicious and new.

I was born in the US, I’m a voting, IRS-fearing citizen. I moved to Australia as a kid but spent five years living in LA, from 2015. I come to America with a loving, curious lens.

I love the idea of America as well as the drama, the opportunity, the noise. The wide spectrum of people, the landscape. I love how much the country goes through, and how tricky it gets. I love the stories, the art, the history. I read enough to build a logical, academic lens on the foundational paintings I intervene on, but I also let in contemporary culture, the new myths and anxieties, and fold that into the mix too.

None of this was timed. Not for the 250th, not for the drama. Purely an accident.This is weird fun. This is a double-take. This is a laugh and a cry at the same time.

This is a love letter to America.

Email hello@mooksimpson.com for more information
or visit Copro Gallery for a preview