# Colab

Colab is the commonly used abbreviation of the New York City artists' group Collaborative Projects, which was formed after a series of open meetings between artists of various disciplines.

## History

Colab members came together as a collective in 1977, first using the name Green Corporation, and initially received a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Workshop Grant through Center for New Art Activities, Inc., a small not-for-profit organization formed in 1974. In 1978, Collaborative Projects was incorporated as a not-for-profit of its own. By raising its own sources of funding, Colab was in control of its own exhibitions and cable TV shows.$^{:9–11}$
Advocating a form of cultural activism that was purely artist driven, the group created artworks, negotiated venues, curated shows, and engaged in discourse that responded to the political themes and predicaments of their time, among them the recessions of the 1970s, the Reagan era of budget cuts and nuclear armament, the housing crisis and gentrification in New York City, and other pressing social issues.
In order to become a member, an artist had to attend three consecutive meetings. Artists who proposed artistic projects for funding needed at least two Colab members involved in the project.$^{:9–11}$

## Projects

From November 1978, different artist members organized and installed original one-off group shows in their own studios or other temporary sites, such as The Batman Show, (591 Broadway 1979), Income and Wealth Show (5 Bleecker Street Store 1979), Doctors and Dentists Show (591 Broadway 1979), The Manifesto Show (5 Bleecker Street Store 1979), The Dog Show (591 Broadway 1979), Just Another Asshole Show (5 Bleecker Street Store), The Real Estate Show (Delancey Street, Jan. 1980), Jay Street Film Shows (1979), Exhibit A (93 Grand Street, 1979), Island of Negative Utopia (The Kitchen, 1984) and The Times Square Show (201 W 41st, June 1980): a large open exhibition near the center of New York's entertainment (and pornography) district (Times Square) that was put on with Bronx-based Fashion Moda.
Seed money from the first Colab (Green Corp.) workshop grant through Center for New Art Inc. led to the creation of the Colab artists' TV series on Manhattan Cable (1978–1984) that included All Color News, Potato Wolf and Red Curtain, and New Cinema - a screening room on 8th Street and St. Mark's Place for new wave Super 8 films transferred to video and projected on an Advent screen - the continued publication of X Motion Picture Magazine(1979) (a No Wave band benefit concert for X Motion Picture Magazine included The Contortions, Boris Policeband, Theoretical Girls, DNA, Terminal and Erasers); support and inspiration for the ABC No Rio cultural center (1980-82 - ongoing) that was created as a result of The Real Estate Show; support of Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine (1983), NightShift Theater 1979, Spanner Magazine (3 issues 1979), MWF Video Club (established in 1986) and Bomb Magazine (1981). Membership in Colab shifted and evolved over the years, and some members of the original group are still highly visible active making art. In 1980, artists emulating 1970s Puerto Rican activists seized a building on New York's Lower East Side and opened it as a collectively run cultural center. ABC No Rio was passed on to successive managements until today it is an anarchist cultural center run by a collective with close ties to the publishing group Autonomedia."

## A Book About Colab (and Related Activities)

In 2016 the organization Printed Matter, Inc published A Book About Colab (and Related Activities). Edited by Max Schumann, the director of Printed Matter, the publication contained a foreword and afterword by art writer and Colab member Walter Robinson. The book traces the output of Collaborative Projects from the late 1970s through the mid 1980s and a provides testimonial about their particular practice of collaboration, collectivity, and social engagement, while reflecting an iconic period of NYC cultural history.$^{:9}$ In keeping with the democratic "by and for artists" ethos of Colab, the publication places this material alongside newly solicited texts from many of the group's members – a mix of reflections and anecdotes, statements, manifestos, and excerpts from the ‘Colab Annual Report’, which provide a close perspective on the meaning of Colab for those who came into its orbit.

## Exhibitions

In 2011, Printed Matter, Inc. presented an exhibition entitled A Show about Colab (and Related Activities).
In 2012, The Hunter College Art Galleries presented Times Square Show Revisited, an in-depth look at the original Times Square Show (1980). Times Square Show Revisited was the first focused assessment of the landmark exhibition organized by the artist group Collaborative Projects, Inc.
In 2013, an exhibition workshop entitled XFR STN (Transfer Station) was held at the New Museum.
In early 2014, there were four concurrent art exhibitions in New York City around The Real Estate Show: at James Fuentes Gallery, ABC No Rio, the Lodge Gallery, and Cuchifritos Gallery/Essex Street Market. The Real Estate Show Revisited. That year Art International Radio also featured an interview and conversation between Jane Dickson, Coleen Fitzgibbon, and Becky Howland about Colab and the 1980 The Real Estate Show which birthed the ABC No Rio cultural center.
From April 15 to May 15, 2016, Printed Matter, Inc presented a restating of The A. More Store, a Colab-sponsored artists’ outlet for low-priced multiples from the early 1980s The selling exhibition included over 100 artworks from over 50 participating Colab members, including works on loan from historic A. More Stores. The first A. More Store evolved from the Gift Shop at the legendary Colab-organized The Times Square Show and appeared shortly after on Broome Street in 1980 with the tag-line “You won’t pay more at the A. More Store”. Other iterations of the store were later presented at Barbara Gladstone Gallery, Jack Tilton Gallery, White Columns, and Printed Matter, Inc.
The 2017 documentary film Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat by Sara Driver contains extensive coverage of Colab, The Real Estate Show, The Times Square Show and ABC No Rio through on-camera interviews with once Colab president Coleen Fitzgibbon and art critic Carlo McCormick.

## Notable members

* Charlie Ahearn
* John Ahearn
* Andrea Callard
* Diego Cortez
* Jane Dickson
* Coleen Fitzgibbon
* Stefan Eins
* Christof Kohlhofer
* Joe Lewis
* Alan W. Moore
* Jamie Nares
* Joseph Nechvatal
* Tom Otterness
* Judy Rifka
* Walter Robinson
* Christy Rupp
* Kiki Smith
* Robin Winters

## Footnotes

* 1 2 3 4 Schumann, Max (2015). A Book about Colab : (and related activities). New York, N.Y.: Printed Matter, Inc. ISBN 978-0-89439-085-2. OCLC 945369534. Archived from the original on 2024-06-20. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Little, David E. (2007). "Colab Takes a Piece, History Takes It Back: Collectivity and New York Alternative Spaces". Art Journal. 66 (1): 60–74. doi:10.2307/20068517. ISSN 0004-3249. JSTOR 20068517.
* ↑ Hager, Steve. Art After Midnight: The East Village Scene. St. Matins Press, 1986. p. 26
* ↑ Anderson, Fiona; Tobin, Amy (2017). "Collaboration is not an Alternative: Artists Working Together in London and new York, 1974 –1981". In Brown, Meredith A.; Millar Fisher, Michelle (eds.). Collaboration and its (Dis)Contents: Art, Architecture, and Photography since 1950. London. pp. 166–170. ISBN 978-1-907485-07-7. Archived from the original on 2020-10-26. Retrieved 2021-03-22.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
* ↑ Alternative art, New York, 1965-1985 : a cultural politics book for the Social Text Collective. Julie Ault, Social Text Collective, Drawing Center. New York: Drawing Center. 2002. ISBN 0-8166-3793-8. OCLC 50253087. Archived from the original on 2024-06-20. Retrieved 2021-03-22.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
* 1 2 3 Lippard, Lucy R. (October 1980). "Sex and Death and Shock and Schlock: A Long Review of the Times Square Show". www.artforum.com. Archived from the original on 2024-06-20. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
* ↑ Boch, Richard (2017). The Mudd Club. Port Townsend, WA: Feral House. p. 332. ISBN 978-1-62731-051-2. OCLC 972429558. Archived from the original on 2024-06-20. Retrieved 2023-03-12.
* 1 2 Goldstein, Richard, The First Radical Art Show of the '80s, Village Voice 16, June 1980, pp. 31-32
* 1 2 Levin, Kim, The Times Square Show, Arts September 1980, pp. 87-90
* 1 2 Deitch, Jeffrey, Report from Times Square, Art in America September 1980, pp. 58-63
* 1 2 Sedgwick, Susana, Times Square Show, East Village Eye Summer 1980, p. 21
* ↑ Graham Thompson,American Culture in the 1980s, Edinburgh University Press, 2007, p. 223
* ↑ Goldsmith, Kenneth (2020). Duchamp is my lawyer : the polemics, pragmatics, and poetics of UbuWeb. New York. p. 274. ISBN 978-0-231-54691-1. OCLC 1135910913. Archived from the original on 2024-06-20. Retrieved 2021-03-22.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
* ↑ "UbuWeb Film & Video: COLAB - All Color News Sampler". ubu.com. Archived from the original on 2021-02-12. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
* ↑ Colab 78-80 (1978-80): Anybody's Show; End of the World; July 4, 1980; Real Estate Show; Shipwreck; Dance of the Leper; All Color News (Colab)
* ↑ Masters, Marc (2007). No Wave. London: Black Dog. p. 141. ISBN 978-1-906155-02-5. OCLC 153560406. Archived from the original on 2024-06-20. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
* ↑ Carlo McCormick, The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene, 1974–1984, Princeton University Press, 2006
* ↑ Moore, Alan W. (2007). "Artists' collectives: focus on New York, 1975-2000". In Stimson, Blake; Sholette, Gregory (eds.). Collectivism after modernism: the art of social imagination after 1945. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 193–221. ISBN 978-0-8166-4461-2. OCLC 645041774. Archived from the original on 2024-06-20. Retrieved 2023-03-11.
* ↑ "A More Store & A Book About Colab (and Related Activities". Archived from the original on 2016-05-13. Retrieved 2016-05-01.
* ↑ Russeth, Andrew (2016-04-15). "Gang of New York: Printed Matter Revisits the Colab Group in a New Book". ARTnews.com. Archived from the original on 2021-04-20. Retrieved 2021-02-28.
* ↑ "A Show about Colab (and Related Activities)". Archived from the original on 2012-05-24. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
* ↑ Chamberlain, Colby (2011-11-07). ""A Show About Colab (and Related Activities)" at Printed Matter, Inc". www.artforum.com. Archived from the original on 2022-04-01. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
* ↑ "Times Square Show Revisited". Archived from the original on 2019-02-18. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
* ↑ Ryzik, Melena (11 August 2013). "Preserving That Great Performance - XFR STN Offers a Digital Update at the New Museum". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 1 April 2022. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
* ↑ Maurer, Daniel (7 April 2014). "A Legendary Guerilla Exhibit, 'The Real Estate Show,' Is Revived in a Proper Gallery". Bedford + Bowery. Archived from the original on 16 April 2014. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
* ↑ Kurchanova, Natasha (5 December 2014). "Lower East Side: The Real Estate Show Redux". www.studiointernational.com. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
* ↑ Litvak, Ed (26 March 2014). "The Real Estate Show Revisited at the James Fuentes Gallery". The Lo-Down : News from the Lower East Side. Archived from the original on 25 February 2021. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
* ↑ Archived 2014-05-07 at archive.today Art International Radio Colab interview
* ↑ "Clocktower - Radio". clocktower.org. Archived from the original on 9 May 2021. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
* ↑ Boch, Richard.The Mudd Club, Feral House, 2017, p. 333
* ↑ "A More Store & A Book About Colab (and Related Activities)". Printed Matter. Archived from the original on 2017-12-29. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
* ↑ Almino, Elisa Wouk; Hogan, Jon (2017-05-18). "Charlie Ahearn on Documenting the Rise of Hip-Hop". Hyperallergic. Archived from the original on 2017-07-14. Retrieved 2024-12-22.
* 1 2 3 Mallet, Ana Elena (2008). "El recuento. Algunas exploraciones a la obra de Kiki Smith". Debate Feminista. 37: 117–120. doi:10.22201/cieg.2594066xe.2008.37.1356 (inactive 1 November 2024). ISSN 0188-9478. JSTOR 42625514.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
* 1 2 3 Sitney, P. Adams; Fitzgibbon, Coleen (2013). "Coleen Fitzgibbon". BOMB (123): 120–127. ISSN 0743-3204. JSTOR 24365423.
* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Spampinato, Francesco (30 July 2015). "Colab Again". Stedelijk Studies. Archived from the original on 2015-09-06. Retrieved 2021-03-10.
* 1 2 3 4 5 Tinti, Mary M. (2010-02-24), "Colab", Oxford Art Online, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t2085677, ISBN 978-1-884446-05-4, retrieved 2021-03-06
* 1 2 3 4 5 Russeth, Andrew (2016-04-15). "Gang of New York: Printed Matter Revisits the Colab Group in a New Book". ARTnews.com. Archived from the original on 2021-04-20. Retrieved 2021-03-20.
* ↑ Ryzik, Melena (2013-08-11). "Preserving That Great Performance". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2022-04-01. Retrieved 2021-03-20.
* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Morgan, Tiernan (2016-05-10). "Thirty Years On, Colab Members Assess Their Successes and Failures". Hyperallergic. Archived from the original on 2021-02-10. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Kurchanova, Natasha. "Lower East Side: The Real Estate Show Redux". www.studiointernational.com. Archived from the original on 2021-03-07. Retrieved 2021-03-20.
* ↑ "The Deadly Art of Survival. 1979. Directed by Charlie Ahearn LES. 1976. Directed by Coleen Fitzgibbon | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Archived from the original on 2024-06-20. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
* 1 2 Maurer, Daniel (2014-04-07). "A Legendary Guerilla Exhibit, 'The Real Estate Show,' Is Revived in a Proper Gallery". Bedford + Bowery. Archived from the original on 2014-04-16. Retrieved 2021-03-20.
* ↑ Hodara, Susan (2012-03-24). "When a South Bronx Collective Went International (Published 2012)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2023-04-09. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
* ↑ Johnson, Ken (2014-04-17). "'The Real Estate Show Was Then: 1980' (Published 2014)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2022-01-29. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
* ↑ "ABC No Rio | History". 2009-12-06. Archived from the original on 2009-12-06. Retrieved 2021-03-10.
* 1 2 3 Nguyen, Trong Gia (Jun 23, 2008). "Colab Redux at Brooke Alexander". Art21 Magazine. Archived from the original on 2020-09-19. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
* 1 2 Glueck, Grace (1984-01-06). "ART: A JOYOUS MEMORIAL TO RICHARD STANKIEWICZ". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2022-04-01. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
* ↑ Hodara, Susan (2012-03-24). "When a South Bronx Collective Went International (Published 2012)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2023-04-09. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
* ↑ "Judy Rifka Exhibits New Work at The Yard, NY". Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art. Archived from the original on 2017-03-18. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
* ↑ Bloch, Mark (August 2016). "Judy Rifka Exhibits New Work at The Yard, NY". Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art. Archived from the original on 2017-03-18. Retrieved 2021-03-20.
* ↑ Allen, Gwen (2011). Artists' Magazines: An Alternative Space for Art. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01519-6. Archived from the original on 2024-06-20. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
* ↑ Morgan, Tiernan (2015-02-20). "Christy Rupp on Rats, Geese, and the Ecology of Public Art". Hyperallergic. Archived from the original on 2021-02-13. Retrieved 2021-03-02.
* ↑ Hodara, Susan (2012-03-24). "When a South Bronx Collective Went International (Published 2012)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2023-04-09. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
* ↑ Weitman, Wendy (2003). Kiki Smith: Prints, Books & Things. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. p. 3. In the late 1970s Smith joined Collaborative Projects, Inc., a loosely knit artists' cooperative that worked outside the commercial gallery system. Colab also ran a series of stores that sold inexpensive artworks and artist-made accessories. Smith was an avid participant and made her first screenprint, a T-shirt, for the souvenir shop at Colab's sprawling 1980 exhibition The Times Square Show.
* ↑ https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_2099_300063001.pdf Archived 2022-01-06 at the Wayback Machine
* ↑ Hodara, Susan (2012-03-24). "When a South Bronx Collective Went International (Published 2012)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2023-04-09. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
* ↑ Kimmelman, Michael (2006-11-05). "The Intuitionist (Published 2006)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2021-01-26. Retrieved 2021-03-13.
* ↑ "Projects 36: Erika Rothenberg | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Archived from the original on 2021-04-11. Retrieved 2021-03-13.
* ↑ Schwendener, Martha (2016-01-07). "Robin Winters Evokes Counterculture Flair in 'Free Standing Sentence'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2016-01-08. Retrieved 2024-12-22.