The year was 1978. The title of the exhibition was partly tongue-in-cheek, partly hype, but secretly we actually believed we were presenting something new and important.
ART/new york reflected the rise of video technology in the late 1970s. For the first time it was simple and fairly inexpensive to make and distribute movies for small specialized groups. Today, when video coverage of art exhibitions and artists is ubiquitous on cable television and on the Internet, it is easy to forget how innovative ART/new york was in the early 1980s.
Although the police quickly shut down the show, the guerrilla exhibition attracted so much media attention that as a compromise the city offered the artists the use of another abandoned building on nearby Rivington Street. Thus out of political confrontation and conflict the gallery ABC No Rio Dinero was born.
Mike Shannon & Billy Collins
Drawings of Jesus
Bettie Visits CBGB
Amsterdam Privé
Voices from 98 Bowery
Unforgettable Moments