In Galleries One & Two
New York in the 80s: Selections from the Barry Blinderman Collection
Fresh out of UPenn with an M.A. in art history, Barry Blinderman moved from Philadelphia to Manhattan in January 1980. Within a year of his arrival he began writing freelance for Arts magazine and became director of Semaphore Gallery in SoHo (and later, Semaphore EAST on 10th and Avenue B), championing dozens of artists who emerged during one of the most fertile yet turbulent decades in 20th century art. This exhibition of rare ephemera and art from 1980-1990 includes artists’ books, posters, zines, audio & video recordings, announcement cards, correspondence, limited-edition prints, photographs, drawings, paintings, and sculptures by the artists Blinderman exhibited, befriended, and wrote about while in New York.
Highlights of the exhibition include: Martin Wong’s byzantine Semaphore press release texts, in ink on cardboard; a letter from David Wojnarowicz detailing the premise of his infamous “A Fire in My Belly” video; Polaroids of Andy Warhol taken while interviewing him at the Factory; Rebecca Howland’s plaster Pentagon Plaque (for the Reagans); Robert Longo’s sketch of the Corporate Wars sculpture, penned on the verso of a Semaphore postcard; the paste-up for the Lady Pink’s 1986 Semaphore EAST billboard; Keith Haring’s chalk drawing of a bound couple, liberated from the Lexington IRT; and The Times Square Show silkscreen poster by Jane Dickson and Charlie Ahearn.
Artists: Donald Baechler, Ellen Berkenblit, Mike Bidlo, Bobby G, Keiko Bonk, William Burroughs, Cockrill/Judge Hughes, Sue Coe, Robert Colescott, Jane Dickson, Nancy Dwyer, John Fekner, Gran Fury, Mimi Gross, Duncan Hannah, Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer, Rebecca Howland, Mark Innerst, Alexander Kosolapov, Mark Kostabi, Janet McKiernan, Komar & Melamid, Stephen Lack, Lady Pink, Robert Longo, Marilyn Minter, Joseph Nechvatal, Felix Pène du Bois, Cara Perlman, Raymond Pettibon, Walter Robinson, Marion Scemama, Walter Steding, Tseng Kwong Chi, Andy Warhol, Rhonda Wall, Hannah Wilke, David Wojnarowicz, Martin Wong, Michael Zwack, Rhonda Zwillinger, and others.