Alan W. Moore (born 1951, in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

) is an

art historian Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

and activist whose work addresses cultural economies and groups and the politics of collectivity. After a stint as an

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

, Moore made

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting ...

and

installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called ...

from the mid-1970s on and performed in the 1979 ''Public Arts International/Free Speech'' series. He has published several books and runs the House Magic information project on self-organized, occupied autonomous social centers. His partial

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

was published in 2022 in The Journal of Aesthetics & Protest as ''Art Worker: Doing Time in the New York Artworld''. Moore lives in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

Colab

Alan W. Moore worked with the no wave artists' group

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 ...

and helped start the cultural center

ABC No Rio ABC No Rio is a collectively-run non-profit arts organization on New York City's Lower East Side. It was founded in 1980 in a squat at 156 Rivington Street, following the eviction of the 1979-80 Real Estate Show. The centre featured an art gal ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

after participating in Colab's ''

The Real Estate Show The Real Estate Show was a squatted exhibition by New York artists' group Colab, on the subject of landlord speculation in real estate held on New Year's Day (January 1, 1980) in a vacant city-owned building at 123 Delancey Street in the Lower Eas ...

'' (1980), one of the best-known artist squat actions in New York history, and the famous ''

The Times Square Show ''The Times Square Show'' was an influential collaborative, self-curated, and self-generated art exhibition held by New York artists' group Colab (aka Collaborative Projects, Inc) in Times Square in a shuttered massage parlor at 201 W. 41st and 7t ...

''. Along with

Coleen Fitzgibbon Coleen Fitzgibbon (born 1950) is an American experimental film artist associated with Collaborative Projects, Inc. (a.k.a. Colab). She worked under the pseudonym Colen Fitzgibbon between the years 1973-1980. Fitzgibbon currently resides on Ludlow ...

, Moore created a film in 1978 (finished in 2009) of a no wave concert to benefit

called ''X Magazine Benefit'' that documents a performance of

Boris Policeband Boris Policeband (a.k.a. Policeband & a.k.a. Boris Pearlman a.k.a. Mark Perelman) was a no wave noise music performer who used dissonant violin, police radio transmissions, and voice. Boris Pearlman was a classically trained violist from New York ...

, DNA and

James Chance and the Contortions James Chance and the Contortions (initially known simply as Contortions, a spin-off group is called James White and the Blacks) was a musical group led by saxophonist and vocalist James Chance, formed in 1977. They were a central act of New York ...

. Shot in black and white

super-8 Super 8 mm film is a motion-picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement over the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format. The film is nominally 8 mm wide, the same as older formatted 8& ...

the film captures the gritty look and sound of the music scene during that era. In 2013 it was exhibited at

Salon 94 Salon 94 is an art gallery in New York City owned by Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn. History East 94th Street The gallery opened in 2003 in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood on New York City’s Upper East Side as an integral part of Jeanne Greenberg Roha ...

, an art gallery in New York City. In 2017 Moore participated in ''The Real Estate Show Extended/Berlin: Group exhibition on the subject of

Gentrification Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and urban planning, planning. Gentrification ...

, Real Estate Speculation and Selling out the City'' at Kunstpunkt Berlin. This show included many Berlin artists along with four original members of the ''Real Estate Show'' (1980): Moore, Becky Howland, Peter Mönnig and

Joseph Nechvatal Joseph Nechvatal (born January 15, 1951) is an American post-conceptual digital artist and Aesthetics, art theoretician who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom-created computer viruses. Life and work ...

. Howland, Mönnig, Moore and Nechvatal also participated in a panel discussion on

Real Estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

and Art on June 3, 2017 that was moderated by sculptor Howard McCalebb of Dada Post, Berlin.

MWF Club

Moore created MWF Club in 1986 as a distribution company for Potato Wolf and All Color News COLAB television programs that aired on public access TV. MWF Club expanded to include programs from various other groups such as Communications Update, Downtown TV,

Glenn O'Brien Glenn O'Brien (March 2, 1947 – April 7, 2017) was an American writer who focused largely on the subjects of art, music, and fashion. He was featured for many years as "The Style Guy" in ''GQ'' magazine and published a book with that title. He ...

's TV Party, New Cinema,

Cinema of Transgression __notoc__ The Cinema of Transgression is a term coined by Nick Zedd in 1985 to describe a New York City-based underground film movement, consisting of a loose-knit group of artists using shock value and black humor in their films. Key players in th ...

, Naked Eye Cinema and numerous artists and filmmakers. Moore co-curated an exhibition workshop in 2013 entitled ''XFR STN'' (Transfer Station) that was held at the

New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Sc ...

. The opening night featured "Moving Image Artists' Distribution Then & Now" an ersatz assembly of participants in the MWF video club, introduced by Moore, Andrea Callard, Michael Carter,

Nick Zedd Nick may refer to: * Nick (given name) * A cricket term for a slight deviation of the ball off the edge of the bat * British slang for being arrested * British slang for a police station * British slang for stealing * Short for nickname Place ...

and Coleen Fitzgibbon.XFR STN at the New Museum
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After PhD

In the early 1990s he went back to school to study an

art history Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

PhD. He has written on

artist collective An artist collective is an initiative that is the result of a group of artists working together, usually under their own management, towards shared aims. The aims of an artist collective can include almost anything that is relevant to the need ...

s, cultural districts, and cultural economies. The PhD was released in book form as ''Art Gangs : Protest and Counterculture in New York City'' in 2012. Moore has published five issues of the House Magic Bureau of Foreign Correspondence. Moore was awarded a grant from the

Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...

in 2012.

Selected works

Books

*2022: Alan W. Moore ''Art Worker: Doing Time In The New York Artworld'' published by the Journal of Aesthetics & Protest Press *2015: (eds) Alan W. Moore and Alan Smart ''Making Room: Cultural Production in Occupied Spaces'' Journal of Aesthetics & Protest/Other Forms Barcelona 978-097913779
PDF
*2015: Alan W. Moore ''Occupation Culture: Art & Squatting in the City from Below'' Minor Compositions/Autonomedia Brooklyn, NY 978157027303
PDF
*2012: Alan W. Moore ''Art Gangs : Protest and Counterculture in New York City'' Autonomedia Brooklyn, NY 9781570272370 *1985: (with Marc Miller) ''ABC No Rio Dinero: The Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery'' ABC No Rio/Collaborative Projects New York

Chapters

* 2007: 'Artists' Collectives Mostly in New York, 1975-2000' in (eds) Blake Stimson and Gregory Sholette ''Collectivism after Modernism'' University of Minnesota Press. * 2006: 'Welcome to our Resistance' in (ed) Clayton Patterson ''Resistance: A Political History of the Lower East Side'' Seven Stories Press.

References

External links

Alan Moore on the Times Square Show

The ABC No Rio Interviews: Alan Moore

Occupations & Properties blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Alan W. 1951 births Living people Mass media theorists American art critics American art historians American art curators Cultural historians Writers from Chicago Historians from Illinois