madder and madder and hotter and hotter

Neon carries a lineage of queer signification. Since the 1960s, queer artists have turned to neon to reappropriate the medium’s commercial qualities, asking viewers to slow down and breathe in its poetics. Language cast in neon invariably hails.

Co-organized by Queer|Art and Lite Brite Neon, madder and madder and hotter and hotter brings together artworks that cite, transmit, remix, and illuminate queer, trans, and feminist lineages for an urgent now. The exhibition’s title comes from Audre Lorde’s daughter, who insisted on speech, knowing that censored or repressed language grows madder and hotter inside one’s body; the language on walls, here, glows. Offering balms, songs, chants, and signs, the works in this show mix the concrete qualities of text and sculpture with the ineffability of light.

Artists in this exhibition include Queer|Art Mentors Jeffrey Gibson, Lola Flash, Demian DinéYazhi’, and Nelson Santos, alongside Glenn Ligon, Ja’Tovia Gary, and others. Anchoring the show are three Queer|Art Artist Editions, commissioned annually to celebrate the work of contemporary artists in Queer|Art’s community while paying homage to the queer trailblazers who came before them—all co-created with Lite Brite Neon, the queer and trans-led neon fabrication studio responsible for collaboratively producing the works on view. Surrounded by ephemera from Lite Brite Neon’s studio, the luminous pieces cite historical icons from Marsha P. Johnson to the collective ACT UP, as well as pop cultural references and ancestral wisdom. Together, they interpellate queer subjects in a bright, warm shout.

Queer|Art connects and empowers LGBTQ+ artists across generations and creative disciplines. Founded in 2009, Queer|Art is an artist-led and community-centered organization—united by shared values of collective care, creative resilience, and the preservation and advancement of queer legacies and queer futures. The devastating loss of a generation of artists to the ongoing AIDS epidemic has created a profound longing for cross-generational connections, mentorship, and community. Queer|Art serves as a ballast against this loss, seeking to highlight and address a lack of both economic and institutional support for queer and trans communities. Ongoing programmatic initiatives include a year-long Mentorship program and a wide array of awards, grants, and offerings that provide direct support to LGBTQ+ artists.

Lite Brite Neon Studio is a queer trans-led collective of craftspeople that specializes in the production of neon art, display, luminous visual props and architectural lighting through a collaborative approach. They seek to transform and transmit the power of light art and display as a viable medium to convey the mystical truths that surround us in everyday life. Their work has graced the facade of the Venice Biennale; appeared on the cover of The New York Times, Artforum, and Print Magazine; in the windows of MoMA, Tiffany & Co., and Bergdorf Goodman; and can be found in museums, galleries, and other visual displays worldwide. They also serve as a resource for the preservation and restoration of historic neon art and displays for many private and public collections including the Dia Art Foundation, MoMA, and the Whitney Museum of Art.