If the sleep of reason creates monsters, does the sleep of creativity create … paintings? Here, in Shai Azoulay’s Dream — an MFA-appropriate version of the Brothers Grimm’s “The Elves and the Shoemaker†— an artist snoozes in his atelier while little paint sprites (pigment figments?) amass around a pristine canvas. Whether they’re about to pounce or leave it in a state of Malevichean whiteness is up in the air, but let’s say they go to town. After all, the cold is making everyone a little sleepy, and the idea of waking up to a finished spreadsheet (or legal brief, or blog post) is too good a fantasy to resist. On view at Participant Inc. through December 21.