Maria Britton transforms discarded bedsheets into artworks that dance between painting and sculpture. In doing so, her work engages themes of memory, dreams, accumulation, labor, gender, and value. Second Sleep highlights these textile-based works called “Draperies,” in which patterned bedsheets become expertly layered, pleated, and playful abstract paintings. Mounted on the wall in curtain-like forms, her “Draperies” shape portals of reflection, whether obscuring the past or inviting to imagine what lies beyond.
Left: Maria Britton, “Rest Note” (2024), acrylic, bed sheets, thread, wooden wall mount, 68 x 70 x 7 inches; Right: Detail of Maria Britton, “Rest Note” (2024), acrylic, bed sheets, thread, wooden wall mount, 68 x 70 x 7 inches
The term “second sleep” references a pattern of segmented sleep common before the Industrial Revolution. Some used this middle-of-the-night wakefulness as a time for creativity and thought; others used it for household chores and maintenance. With the invention of electricity and working pressures from capitalism, modern societies lost touch with this natural rhythm of rest.
Intertwining domestic materials with joyful abstraction, Britton invites a celebration of reinvention and free-thinking. Second Sleep points to over a decade of ambitious artistic development, showcasing a body of work where new methods and designs are prioritized over tradition.
This exhibition is funded in part by the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts, and by a generous award from the John and Susan Bennett Memorial Arts Fund of The Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina.
Second Sleep is on view at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston through July 25, 2026.
To learn more, visit halsey.charleston.edu.
