Borderline

borderline borrows its title from the 1983 Madonna single, a biting plea for normalcy from a hot and cold lover that’s evolved into a nostalgic dance classic. In this exhibition, “borderline” refers to the nature of the artists’ work, and participating galleries’ approaches to tastemaking in an evolving culture that now exists somewhere between tangible and digital. The works chosen for this exhibition toy with expected uses of familiar media—at the thresholds of reimagined, rebellious, and provocative.

In Mary Lambert’s 1984 music video for Borderline, Madonna sings, “Come on baby, set me free. You just keep on pushin’ my love over the borderline,” as she leans longingly against a streetlight. This scene takes place outside a baby-pink bar with faded signs reading “Cold Beer” and “Pool Room,” where we find her lover playing pool.

The scene captures a familiar sense of desire and frustration while visually mirroring the aesthetic of the goodtime hotel’s library, home of this collaborative exhibition. Surrounded by pink velvet couches and decorative palms, one can only imagine sitting with the same ambiguous angst and anticipation, cocktail in hand, waiting for a supposed lover—a feeling we have all known.

Whether through reappropriated eBay photographs, photo-ethnographies of cockfights and criminalized dog breeds, or palm trees rendered in various shades of pink and rose, the works unfold like surreal odysseys and uncanny visual diaries. Baked clay resembles the softness of a body at rest, aerosol meditation guides linger like faint prayers in the air, and painted horizon lines recall the push “over the borderline.” Within both the exhibition and the very room it inhabits, there is a feeling that recalls Madonna’s glorious longing—a shared longing for our city of romanticized sunsets and toxic lovers.

Statement written by Catherine Mary Camargo (Queue Gallery), Maria Gabriela Di Giammarco and Mario Andres Rodriguez (Supermarket Gallery)

$20 discounted valet parking available at the hotel. Limited complimentary food and beverage will be passed and full menu available for purchase.