Exit Art was a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

cultural center A cultural center or cultural centre is an organization, building or complex that promotes culture and arts. Cultural centers can be neighborhood community arts organizations, private facilities, government-sponsored, or activist-run. Africa * ...

that ran from 1982 to 2012 that exhibited contemporary visual art, installation,

video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

, theater, and performance in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, United States. In its last location in

Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, or Midtown West on real estate listings, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, ...

, it was a two-story gallery. Jeanette Ingberman and

Papo Colo Papo Colo (b. August 12, 1946) is a Puerto Rican performance artist, painter, writer, and curator. He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He lives and works in New York City and in El Yunque rainforest in Puerto Rico. Early life and education At ...

founded Exit Art as an

alternative exhibition space An alternative exhibition space is a space other than a traditional commercial venue used for the public exhibition of artwork. Often comprising a place converted from another use, such as a store front, warehouse, or factory loft, it is then made i ...

. Beginning with its first show, “Illegal America,” and continuing through to 2012, the gallery focused on representing the underdog, dedicating shows to the exploration of ideas and people outside the political, social, sexual, and aesthetic mainstreams. Throughout its history, Exit Art was located in various places. The first location, in 1982, was on West Broadway, in

SoHo SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...

. In 2002, the gallery moved to its last location in Hell's Kitchen. The gallery was known for its support of outsider artists. The 1992 show “Fever” was declared one of the ten most important shows of the decade by

Peter Plagens Peter Plagens (born 1941) is an American artist, art critic, and novelist based in New York City.Online Archive of CaliforniaPeter Plagens papers, 1938-2014 Retrieved January 18, 2018.Smith, Roberta''The New York Times'', February 7, 2018. Retrie ...

from ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

'', and the gallery's 18-year retrospective, "The End", won the Association of International Art Critics Award for Best Show in an Alternative Space in 2000. Artists who exhibited at Exit Art include

Chakaia Booker Chakaia Booker (born 1953) is an American sculptor known for creating monumental, abstract works for both the gallery and outdoor public spaces. Booker’s works are contained in more than 40 public collections and have been exhibited across the ...

Gabo Camnitzer Gabo Camnitzer (born 1984) is a Swedish and U.S. artist, pedagogue, and musician. Life and work Using installation, sculpture, drawing and pedagogical interventions, Camnitzer's work focuses on questions surrounding childhood, subject formation, ...

Patty Chang Patty Chang (born February 3, 1972, in San Leandro, California)"About." ''Patty Chang.'' Accessed March 10, 2018. http://www.pattychang.com/about/ is an American performance artist and film director living and working in Los Angeles, California. ...

Shu Lea Cheang Shu Lea Cheang (; born April 13, 1954) is a Taiwanese-American artist and filmmaker who lived and worked in New York City in the 1980s and 1990s, until relocating to Europe in 2000. Since the 1980s, as a multimedia and new-media artist, she has ...

COOPER Cooper, Cooper's, Coopers and similar may refer to: * Cooper (profession), a maker of wooden casks and other staved vessels Arts and entertainment * Cooper (producers), an alias of Dutch producers Klubbheads * "Cooper", a song by Roxette from ...

, John Drury,

Jimmie Durham Jimmie Bob Durham (July 10, 1940 – November 17, 2021) was an American sculptor, essayist and poet. He was active in the United States in the civil rights movements of African Americans and Native Americans in the 1960s and 1970s, serving on the ...

Nicole Eisenman Nicole Eisenman (born 1965) is a French-born American artist known for her oil paintings and sculptures. She has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship (1996), the Carnegie Prize (2013), and has thrice been included in the Whitney Biennial (1995, ...

Inka Essenhigh Inka Essenhigh (born 1969) is an American painter based in New York City. Throughout her career, Essenhigh has had solo exhibitions at galleries such as Deitch Projects, Mary Boone Gallery, 303 Gallery, Stefan Stux Gallery, and Jacob Lewis Galler ...

, Jane Hammond,

David Hammons David Hammons (born July 24, 1943) is an American artist, best known for his works in and around New York City and Los Angeles during the 1970s and 1980s. Early life David Hammons was born in 1943 in Springfield, Illinois, the youngest of ten ...

Tehching Hsieh Sam Hsieh Teh-ching (; born December 31, 1950), known professionally as Tehching Hsieh, is a Taiwanese-born performance artist. He has been called a "master" by fellow performance artist Marina Abramović. Early life Born in Nanzhou, Hsieh wa ...

, Steve Giovinco,

Brad Kahlhamer Brad Kahlhamer (born 1956) is an artist known for his multi-media practice, ranging from sculpture and painting to performance and music. He is currently based in New York City, working from his studio in Brooklyn. His work has been collected by i ...

, DG Krueger, Alfredo Martinez,

Julie Mehretu Julie Mehretu (born November 28, 1970) is an Ethiopian American contemporary visual artist, known for her multi-layered paintings of abstracted landscapes on a large scale. Her paintings, drawings, and prints depict the cumulative effects of urba ...

Yucef Merhi Yucef Merhi (born February 8, 1977) is a Venezuelan artist, poet and computer programmer based in New York.Carlo Zanni''INTERVIEW WITH YUCEF MERHI'', Centre international d'art contemporain de Montréal's online magazine, No.18, 2004. Early life ...

Shirin Neshat Shirin Neshat (; born March 26, 1957) is an Iranian photographer and visual artist who lives in New York City, known primarily for her work in film, video and photography. Her artwork centers on the contrasts between Islam and the West, femininit ...

, Joshua Neustein,

Roxy Paine Roxy Paine (born 1966, New York City) is an American painter and sculptor widely known for his installations that often convey elements of conflict between the natural world and the artificial plains man creates. He was educated at both the Coll ...

Adrian Piper Adrian Margaret Smith Piper (born September 20, 1948) is an American conceptual artist and Kantian philosopher. Her work addresses how and why those involved in more than one discipline may experience professional ostracism, otherness, racial ...

Ursula von Rydingsvard Ursula von Rydingsvard (née Karoliszyn; born 1942) is a sculptor who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She is best known for creating installation art, large-scale works influenced by nature, primarily using Cedrus, cedar and other forms o ...

Rirkrit Tiravanija Rirkrit Tiravanija (, Jerry Saltz (May 7, 2007)Conspicuous Consumption''New York Magazine''.) is a Thai contemporary artist residing in New York City, Berlin, and Chiangmai, Thailand. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1961. His installatio ...

Fred Tomaselli Fred Tomaselli (born in Santa Monica, California, in 1956) is an American artist. He is best known for his highly detailed paintings on wood panels, combining an array of unorthodox materials suspended in a thick layer of clear, epoxy resin. Th ...

Cecilia Vicuña Cecilia Vicuña (born 1948) is a Chilean poet and artist based in New York and Santiago, Chile. Her work is noted for themes of language, memory, dissolution, extinction and exile. Critics also note the relevance of her work to the politics of e ...

Cynthia von Buhler Cynthia von Buhler (; born Cynthia Carrozza, 1964) is an American artist, author, playwright, performer, and producer. Early life Cynthia von Buhler was born Cynthia Carrozza and raised in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, the middle child in an ...

Krzysztof Wodiczko Krzysztof Wodiczko (born April 16, 1943) is a Polish people, Polish artist known for his large-scale presentation slide, slide and video projections on architectural facades and monuments. He has realized more than 80 such public projections in A ...

David Wojnarowicz David Michael Wojnarowicz ( ; September 14, 1954 – July 22, 1992) was an American painter, photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, songwriter/recording artist, and HIV/AIDS activism, AIDS activist prominent in the East Village, Ma ...

, Martin Wong,

World War 3 Illustrated ''World War 3 Illustrated'' is an American comics anthology magazine with a left-wing political focus, founded in 1979 (though the first issue was published in 1980) by New York City comic book artists Peter Kuper and Seth Tobocman,Neil Gaiman, ...

, and Ricardo Miranda Zuniga, and Jolanta Gorawita. Exit Art co-founder Jeanette Ingberman died on August 24, 2011, from complications of leukemia. The gallery closed in May 2012.

References

External links

Exit Art Archive
at

Fales Library and Special Collections New York University's Fales Library and Special Collections is located on the third floor of the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library at 70 Washington Square South (off of Washington Square Park) between LaGuardia Place and the Schwartz Plaza, in the Greenwi ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

1982 establishments in New York City Art museums and galleries established in 1982 Arts centers in New York City Defunct art museums and galleries in Manhattan Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan {{Manhattan-struct-stub