I walk into Jonathan Levine Gallery last Friday night and the first thing I see is a tall woman in a white fur hat. She's somewhat intimidating I must confess, but extravagance is always a good sign at an art opening. It is Camille Rose Garcia who, to my surprise, turns out to be open, positive and friendly. This seems a little contradictory given the titles of her recent shows, such as Ultraviolence, Subterranean Death Clash, and Ambien Somnambulants, her latest series of paintings.

Left: Dreamtime Spring Hijack; right: Night of the Sleepwitch, by Camille Rose Garcia. Copyright the artist, courtesy of Jonathan Levine Gallery

Camille's nature-filled imagery, along with her use of silver leaf, glitter, and brilliant color forms a dramatic contrast to the dark socio-political narratives that abound. Characters in her mystical world float above snowy mountains, spooky tree branches and evil mushrooms, shedding waterfalls of tears that are cheerfully sprinkled across the canvases. The doe-eyed animals that inhabit these dramatic scenes bear an eerie resemblance to Disney's Bambi. It's almost as if the artist were forcing us to admit that talking animals with permanent smiles cannot rule our capitalist world, although it's not hard to argue that they actually do.

The title, Ambien Somnambulants, refers to the sleeping pill Ambien and the somnambulant state of mind a large segment of the population chooses to live in today. Indeed, the large-scale paintings, with their beautifully bleak post-apocalyptic dreamscapes suggest a dystopian society whose dangers are artfully disguised by its utopian trappings. Garcia portrays a medicated world in which the drugs prescribed have side effects just as dangerous as the condition they are supposed to cure.

I had a chance to ask the artist what inspired this new series of paintings. "People live in a sort of zombification, because everyone is medicated to control their anxieties and shut down their own voices," Camille replied. "It's as if we were collectively deciding to ignore what's going on in the world. That's why the darker the world gets, the brighter my color palette becomes in order to represent a constant state of denial. I like to think of denial as a painful form of optimism."

Ambien Somnambulants by Camille Rose Garcia and Panorama Projects 3: 134 Artists, curated by Jordin Isip and Rodger Stevens, are on view at Jonathan LeVine Gallery through October 4, 2008.

Fernanda Cohen is a Brooklyn-based artist who works in advertising, editorial, fashion, window display and events programming, mainly as an illustrator. She is a member of the undergraduate illustration department faculty at the School of Visual Arts.