These are the Contemporary Artists who have most impressively mastered the technical aspects of painting (and sculpture), embracing the Symbolists and the broader artistic trend of Surrealism to fuse conscious symbolism with the power of subconscious archetypes. Certain mediums excel at spilling nightmares into the waking world, haunting the canvas, crawling across the comic-book page, stalking the cinematic screen. Literature has proven to be intrinsically incompatible with the visceral-visual experience of dreams, while paintings, comic books and films have given us many convincing replications of the dreaming mind. While most of these artists devote themselves to the mysteries of the sleeping world, others use the iconic imagery of art history to create challenges to the viewer's conscious and subconscious mind simultaneously; dream-like juxtapositions that prompt rational translations. Does that clear anything up? No? Fuck it.