Clayton Schiff’s dreamlike paintings feature animal-like characters depicted in poetic environments. Taking inspiration from children's book imagery, Schiff's soft-edged compositions appear playful, whimsical, and even humorous. But upon closer inspection, the cartoon-like visuals reveal darker, haunting moods, absurdist undertones, and psychological subtexts. The artist gathers impressions of an unconscious that distorts, displaces, enlarges, and compresses experiences accumulated while awake. His haunting iconography recalls the symbolism of Arnold Böcklin, the alienation and anxiety of Edvard Munch, and Leonora Carrington’s fairylands. Schiff’s fantastical creatures and strange landscapes also have a subtlety and lightness that is playful and even humorous. His work has been shown at the Rubell Museum, and at numerous galleries, including Harkawik, Real Pain, LOYAL, Fisher Parrish, Safe Gallery, Nevvan Gallery, and Gothenberg, amongst others. Schiff received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2009.