COLEEN FITZGIBBON

ABC No Rio. Photo: Lori Greenberg.

By Lori Greenberg

As we reported recently, four Lower East Side galleries are hosting installations which pay tribute to the groundbreaking 1979-1980 Real Estate Show.

The original historic exhibit was created by a group of artists who took over a vacant city-owned building at 123 Delancey Street. Mere days after opening up the show to the public, the powers-that-be padlocked the doors. As a result of this fiasco, the artists group Colab (Collaborative Projects) was given another space on Rivington Street to continue their show. That 1980 exhibit planted the seed for a permanent arts space that eventually morphed into ABC No Rio.

The current incarnation of The Real Estate Show re-examines the same theme of unaffordable housing and grim economic conditions facing residents in New York City. Many of the same complaints and issues exist nearly 35 years later.

We visited all four galleries, which included original and updated Colab work along with work by other artists.

Poster by Andy Baird at The James Fuentes Gallery. Photo: Lori Greenberg.

The James Fuentes Gallery was the first to kick off the series (The Real Estate Show, Was Then: 1980), closely followed by ABC No Rio (RESx). After Fuentes, who grew up in the neighborhood, came up with the idea of reviving the Real Estate Show, the two institutions worked in tandem, sharing ABC No Rio’s rich archives. The other galleries joined in soon after.

Fuentes featured original and updated work from members of Colab. One of the gallery walls showcased a piece by Becky Howland which depicted a giant octopus, greedily grabbing up buildings. This piece of artwork had been displayed on the outside of 123 Delancey for the original show. Despite being pasted to an outer wall of a building around 35 years ago, part of the work had managed to survive, and the artist was recently able to fill in the rest.

ABC No Rio. Photo: Lori Greenberg.

ABC No Rio also features a mix of original work, recreated pieces and newer art. The participating artists were also invited to keep adding work to the show during the duration of the exhibit so that, in keeping with the spirit of the original Colab show, it continues to evolve and grow over time. We loved the exterior of the building which had signs exclaiming typical real estate cliches such as “Updated Classic” and “Sun Drenched Views.”

The Lodge Gallery was the third gallery to join the series, with curators Keith Schweitzer and Jason Patrick Voegele asking the original Colab artists to respond to the theme (and title of their show), No City Is An Island. Participating artists include John Ahearn, Charlie Ahearn, Jody Culkin, Jane Dickson, Stefan Eins, Peter Fend, Coleen Fitzgibbon, Bobby G, Mike Glier, Becky Howland, Lisa Kahane, Christof Kohlhofer, Justen Ladda, Joe Lewis, Ann Messner, Richard Miller, Tom Otterness, Cara Perlman, Judy Rifka, Walter Robinson, Christy Rupp, Teri Slotkin, Kiki Smith and Seton Smith (most of whom have pieces in the related exhibits).

The fourth participant, Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space (The Real Estate Show, What Next: 2014), focuses on the SPURA development (i.e. Essex Crossing) and the drastic changes it will bring to the neighborhood. The gallery is also featuring a “Free Speech” hour every day from 5pm – 6pm, soap box included. A centerpiece of the exhibit is a working sweet potato food cart, evoking a common sight in the neighborhood in the 1940s.

The images in the slideshow below depict each gallery in order of their opening days.

The Real Estate Show, Was Then: 1980 at James Fuentes, 55 Delancey Street, April 4 – 27
RESx: The Real Estate Show Extended at ABC NoRio, 156 Rivington Street, April 9 – May 8
No City An Island at The Lodge Gallery, 131 Chrystie Street, April 10 – May 11
The Real Estate Show, What Next: 2014 at Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space, April 19 – May 18

Read the article at:
http://www.boweryboogie.com/2014/04/gallery-hopping-real-estate-show-revival-lower-east-side/

VIEW PRESS RELEASE

The artists coalition Collaborative Projects, Inc. (Colab) launched the 1980s by breaking into a vacant city-owned building at 123-125 Delancey St. on New Year’s Eve, December 31st, 1979. There they installed the Real Estate Show to challenge city policies on housing and development. The police closed the exhibition on January 2nd, 1980.

Negotiations between the NYC Department of Buildings and Colab members led to the trade of the building at 123-125 Delancey Street for 155 Rivington St. 155 Rivington St. became ABC No Rio, an artists space still running after 34 years. The original site of the Real Estate Show, 109 Delancey St., is a vacant lot waiting to become part of the SPURA/Essex Crossing development, which will include a branch the Warhol Museum.

To commemorate this history, the following galleries are presenting exhibitions:

The Real Estate Show, Was Then: 1980
Exhibition Dates: April 4 – 27, 2014
James Fuentes Gallery, 55 Delancey St, New York, NY 10002
Hours: Wed-Sun, 11-6 PM
www.jamesfuentes.com

RESx (The Real Estate Show Extended)
Exhibition Dates: April 9 – May 8, 2014
ABC No Rio, 156 Rivington St (Clinton/Suffolk Sts), New York, NY 10002
Hours: Sun 2-5 PM, Wed-Thurs 4-7 PM
Open call to artists thru April for real-estate related, disposable art. RESx CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

No City An Island
Exhibition Dates: April 10 – May 11, 2014
The Lodge Gallery, 131 Chrystie St (between Delancey and Broome), New York, NY 10002
Hours: Wed-Fri, 2-10 PM, Sat-Sun, 12-10 PM
http://www.thelodgegallery.com/no-city-is-an-island/

The Real Estate Show, What Next: 2014
Exhibition Dates: April 19 – May 18, 2014
Cuchifritos Gallery, 120 Essex Street (located inside Essex Street Market), New York, NY 10002
Hours: Tues-Sun, 12-6 PM
Open call to artists for events planning. Please contact [email protected] for more info. http://artistsallianceinc.org/cuchifritos-gallery-2/upcoming-exhibitions/the-real-estate-show-what-next-2014

In and Around Collaborative Projects Inc.
Real Estate Show related film screenings through May, 2014
Spectacle, 124 S. 3rd St, Brooklyn, NY
More info & full schedule: http://www.spectacletheater.com/colab-in-and-around-collaborative-projects-inc/

Currently on view:
The Real Estate Show, What Next 2014
April 19 – May 18, 2014
Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space, 120 Essex St (located inside Essex Street Market), NYC

Photo courtesy of Ann Messner. 123-5 Delancey, site of the original Real Estate Show 1979/80

Open call to artists for events planning! Contact [email protected] for more info.

The return of The Real Estate Show in five NYC venues (James Fuentes Gallery, ABC No Rio, the Lodge Gallery, Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space and Spectacle), continues now through May 18th at Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space. Find more information about all shows in the Press Release!

Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space is honored to present the exhibition The Real Estate Show, What Next: 2014. An extension of The Real Estate Show of 1979/1980, this exhibition will serve as a living project space, presenting new work that continues to question the impending re-development of the Seward Park Urban Redevelopment Area (SPURA) sites. By addressing certain issues that have both united and polarized the neighborhood over the last 30+ years, the exhibition will encourage artists and community members to become an active part of the conversation by focusing on the particular insights and experimental processes that artists bring to imagining new urban spaces. All of the projects, contributed by former Colab members and participants in the original Real Estate Show, take form through audience engagement, as Cuchifritos becomes a flexible site for the active processes unfolding throughout the duration of the exhibition. (Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space) http://artistsallianceinc.org/cuchifritos-gallery-2/upcoming-exhibitions/the-real-estate-show-what-next-2014

COLLABORATIVE PRESERVATION STRATEGIES: A LOOK INTO XFR STN
Friday, April 11, 2014 5:10-6:30 PM
NYU Cantor Film Center (36 E. 8th Street), Theater 102

Participants: Johanna Burton, Coleen Fitzgibbon and Andrea Callard, Tara Hart, Alan W. Moore, moderated by Leeroy Kun Young Kang

Institutions, organizations, and artists have grappled with the need to preserve and provide access to audiovisual materials stored in aging and obsolete audiovisual and digital formats for decades; however, issues related to the cost of storage, equipment and time required for digital reformatting have presented challenges for those with limited resources. Recently, projects such as XFR STN at the New Museum in New York, have worked with multiple practitioners to provide common access to at-risk video materials and make media preservation services available at a grassroots level.

In this session, various participants in XFR STN will reflect on the outcome of the project and discuss radical possibilities that can be brought about through collaboration amongst institutions, communities, and individuals with various disciplinary vantage points. The program will include a screening of select videos digitized during the course of the project from the New Museum Archives and Monday/Wednesday/Friday Video Club, and will end with a moderated Q&A session. (from the website)

Full Schedule for the Radical Archives Conference (April 11-12, 2014)

ABOUT THE RADICAL ARCHIVES CONFERENCE
Curated by Mariam Ghani and Chitra Ganesh

A two-day conference organized around the notion of archiving as a radical practice, by which we mean: archives of radical politics and practices; archives that are radical in form or function; moments or contexts in which archiving in itself becomes a radical act; and considerations of how archives can be active in the present, as well as documents of the past and scripts for the future.The conference is organized around four threads of radical archival practice: Archive and Affect, or the embodied archive; Archiving Around Absence, or reading for the shadows; Archives and Ethics, or stealing from and for archives; and Archive as Constellation, or archive as method, medium, and interface. (from the website)

Currently on view:
No City Is An Island
April 10 – May 11, 2014
The Lodge Gallery, 131 Chrystie St (between Delancey and Broome), NYC

The return of The Real Estate Show in four NYC venues (James Fuentes Gallery, ABC No Rio, the Lodge Gallery, Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space and Spectacle), continues now until May 11th at The Lodge Gallery. http://www.thelodgegallery.com/no-city-is-an-island/

Find more about all five exhibitions HERE.

Collaborative Projects Inc (Colab), focused on theme-centered exhibitions with a spirit of openness, experimentation, and minimal curatorial interference. Within this context, “No City Is An Island” asked former members of Colab to respond to the exhibition’s title as a theme around which to contribute work. Dialogues were rekindled and themes were revisited or reinterpreted. As each artist has evolved over time, so has the city itself. With a range of works transversing 35 years, “No City is an Island” revisits the zeitgeist of a New York City long bygone, compares and contrasts the artists and urban realities of then with now, and honors one of the most influential art organizations in New York City’s history. (The Lodge Gallery)

As part of a series of exhibitions surrounding The Real Estate Show from 1980, this exhibition features new work on the theme of real estate, land-use, and the right to housing.

Installation with Reception: April 9 at 7:00pm
Viewing Hours: Sun 2:00 — 5:00pm
Wed & Thrs 4:00 —7:00pm

From the original Real Estate Show Statement of Intent:
“This is a short-term occupation of vacant city-managed property… The occupation and exposition imposes a complex human system where previously there was no system — or only the system of waste and disuse that characterizes the profit system in real estate.”

In the spirit of the original show, we are asking artists to only bring work that can be easily replaced or duplicated. We don’t want to break the heart of any artist if their work is destroyed. ABC No Rio remains a rough and ready space. The exhibition will share the gallery with No Rio’s punk matinee every Saturday afternoon. Although there is no size limit, you may wish to think small – like Vermeer. Big is OK, but likely will be layered over as new work comes in. Participating artists are encouraged to stop by on Sunday afternoons during the run of the show to see how the installation has evolved and to add to it, or to replace work.

The original Real Estate Show opened on New Year’s Eve, 1979 at 123 Delancey, now part of the massive Essex Crossing development. The Real Estate Show led to the creation of ABC No Rio.

For more information, visit ABC NoRio.

Concurrent Exhibitions:
The Real Estate Show, What Next: 2014 at Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space, 120 Essex Street (inside Essex Street Market), April 19 – May 18
The Real Estate Show, Was Then: 1980 at James Fuentes, 55 Delancey Street, April 4 – April 27
No City is an Island at The Lodge Gallery, 131 Chrystie Street, April 10 – May 11

Read the article at: http://artistsallianceinc.org/events/past/page/2

Currently on view:
RESx (The Real Estate Show Extended)
April 9 – May 8, 2014
ABC No Rio, 156 Rivington St, NYC

Open call to artists for real-estate related, disposable art!
*INSTALLATION & HANGING THROUGH APRIL*
CALL TO PARTICIPATION

The return of The Real Estate Show in four NYC venues (James Fuentes Gallery, ABC No Rio, the Lodge Gallery and Cuchifritos Gallery in the Essex Street Market), continues now until May 8th at ABC No Rio.

Find more about all five exhibitions HERE.

Complementing the exhibition at James Fuentes Gallery, of original work from the Real Estate Show of 1980, the show at ABC No Rio features new work on the theme of real estate, land-use, and the right to housing.

In the spirit of the original show, we are asking artists to only bring work that can be easily replaced or duplicated. We don’t want to break the heart of any artist if their work is destroyed. ABC No Rio remains a rough and ready space. The exhibition will share the gallery with No Rio’s punk matinee every Saturday afternoon. Although there is no size limit, you may wish to think small – like Vermeer. Big is OK, but likely will be layered over as new work comes in. Participating artists are encouraged to stop by on Sunday afternoons during the run of the show to see how the installation has evolved and to add to it, or to replace work. (ABC No Rio)

Coleen Fitzgibbon at the Opening of “RESx”, April 9, 2014

James Fuentes is honored to announce its forthcoming exhibition which will revisit a seminal exhibition called The Real Estate Show, which took place in 1980 at 123 Delancey Street. Organized by Colab, a group comprised of artists and activists to collectively generate exhibition opportunities, funding and resources for artists, The Real Estate Show took place in a city owned building that the organizers and artists utilized without permission from the city. The exhibition aimed to deal with what they saw as a real estate crisis in New York City for the non-­‐wealthy, the group dedicated the exhibition to Elizabeth Mangum, an African American woman killed by police and marshals as she resisted eviction in Flatbush.

For more information, visit James Fuentes.

Concurrent Exhibitions:
The Real Estate Show, What Next: 2014 at Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space, 120 Essex Street (inside Essex Street Market), April 19 – May 18
RESx: The Real Estate Show Extended at ABC NoRio, 156 Rivington Street, April 9 – May 8
No City is an Island at The Lodge Gallery, 131 Chrystie Street, April 10 – May 11

Rendering of the proposed Warhol Museum as part of the SPURA/Essex Crossing development (Image courtesy of http://untappedcities.com)

By Whitney Kimball

The 1980 “Real Estate Show,” the seed which became ABC No Rio, will be making a comeback this month in four parts across the city. Part One opens tomorrow night at James Fuentes Gallery, and will include original artworks from the first show, which were hunted down by stewards of the No Rio Collection Peter Cramer & Jack Waters of Allied Productions,Inc. and Colab member Becky Howland.

“The Real Estate Show” began on New Year’s Eve, 1980, when the group Colab broke into a vacant city-owned building at 109 Delancey Street. Two days later, the police locked artists out of the space, which spurred loud protests; as a result, artists were granted the use another building at 156 Rivington Street, aka, ABC No Rio. Throughout the nineties, artist tenants went on to struggle with the city over its rental agreement and building codes. After agreeing to raise money and reform their image, artists finally bought the building from the city in 2009, for $1.

At the time of the “Real Estate Show”‘s formation, the city was intentionally vacating buildings in order to devalue, repossess, and resell them at a higher rate. Thirty-four years later, that vacant city-owned building at 109 Delancey Street is now well on its way to holding the shimmering SPURA/Essex Crossing development, which will include an Andy Warhol Museum. As for me, I went to a gallery opening in a storage locker last night.

In the show’s original spirit of openness, ABC No Rio has put out an open call to artists who’d like to participate, and they ask that you bring small work that can be “easily replaced”. If you’d like to participate, bring your work to 156 Rivington Street on Tuesday April 8, from 5-9 PM, or to the ABC No Rio reception on Wednesday from 7-10 PM.

Here’s the full show schedule:

The Real Estate Show, Was Then: 1980
Opening Reception: Friday, April 4th, 6-8 PM
Exhibition Dates: April 4 – 27, 2014
James Fuentes Gallery, 55 Delancey St, New York, NY 10002

RESx
Opening Reception: Wednesday, April 9th, 5-8 PM
Exhibition Dates: April 9 – May 8, 2014
ABC No Rio, 156 Rivington St, New York, NY 10002
Open call to artists (through April) for real estate-related, disposable art.

No City An Island
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 10th, 6-8 PM
The Lodge Gallery, 131 Chrystie St, New York, NY 10002

The Real Estate Show, What Next: 2014
Opening Reception: Wednesday, April 19th, 6-8 PM
Exhibition Dates: April 19 – May 18, 2014
Cuchifritos Gallery, Essex Street Market, New York, NY 10002

Read the article at: http://artfcity.com/2014/04/03/the-historic-real-estate-show-returns/