The Border is the Entrance by Jason Ackman
November 14 - December 20, 2025
Gallery Talk: November 14, 2025 | 6-6:30 pm

The works in this exhibit are a continuation of a theme Ackman has been quietly walking, and at times, wrestling with over the past five years. The concept of the traveler or stranger, one who moves beyond the walls or land they currently find themselves in, to drift in and out of the margins. Individuals found in this “in-between” are looking, searching beyond the periphery, longing for the ever-elusive place to call home. These sojourners view a border or barrier differently than most.

For many, a border, whether it be a psychological construct or a man-made barrier, is interpreted as a sign to stop or withdraw. It prevents one from journeying further. Yet these stopping points are interpreted differently for those searching. For those individuals, the border can be a passageway, an entry point to unknown lands. Instead of turning back, travelers see this as a sign, not to stop, but instead a warning to proceed with caution as they are traveling through. Those individuals who are traveling the borderlands are attempting to satisfy a longing for somewhere else, somewhere that feels more like home to them. And that space they find themselves in, between where they are and where they long to be, is the perilous territory of not-belonging, the territory of outliers. It is unsettling for the traveler to find themselves there. And yet, here we are. Here I am.