Exit Art was a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

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. Asia * Ce ...

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

installation Installation may refer to: * Installation (computer programs) * Installation, work of installation art * Installation, military base * Installation, into an office, especially a religious (Installation (Christianity) Installation is a Christian li ...

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...

, theater, and performance in

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 ...

, United States. In its last location in

Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, 59th Street to the north, Eighth Avenue to the eas ...

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

Papo Colo Papo Colo (born 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. Papo Colo is an interdiscipl ...

founded Exit Art as an alternative exhibition space. 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 is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develop ...

. In 2002, the gallery moved to its last location in Hell's Kitchen. The gallery was lauded for its diverse and daring programming. 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 online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'', 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 in Newark, New Jersey) 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 ...

, Gabo Camnitzer,

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 90s, until relocating to the EuroZone in 2000. Cheang received a BA in history from the National Taiwan Un ...

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), alias of Dutch producers Klubbheads * Cooper (video game character), in ...

, 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 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, 20 ...

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 Jane R. Hammond (born 1950) is an American artist who lives and works in New York City. She was influenced by the late composer John Cage.Hilarie M. Sheets. "Jane Hammond: 'Down the Rabbit Hole of Photography'" ARTnews. February 2013. pp. 74–79. ...

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 Tehching (Sam) Hsieh (謝德慶; born 31 December 1950; Nan-Chou, Pingtung County, Taiwan) is a US performance artist of Taiwanese background. He has been called a "master" by fellow performance artist Marina Abramović. Early life Hsieh was one ...

Steve Giovinco Steve Giovinco is an American photographer. He created a hand-held large-format (8x8") camera in 1992. Life and career In the 1980s, Giovinco attended Yale University. In 1991 he had his first one-man exhibition, at the Kansas City Art Institu ...

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,

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 urban ...

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 lif ...

Shirin Neshat Shirin Neshat ( fa, شیرین نشاط; born March 26, 1957 in Qazvin) is an Iranian 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 th ...

Joshua Neustein Joshua Neustein (born 1940) is a contemporary visual artist who lives and works in New York City. He is known for his Conceptual Art, environmental installations, Land Art, Postminimalist torn paper works, epistemic abstraction, deconstructed c ...

, Roxy Paine,

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 large-scale works influenced by nature, primarily using cedar and other forms of timber. Early life an ...

Rirkrit Tiravanija Rirkrit Tiravanija ( th, ฤกษ์ฤทธิ์ ตีระวนิช, pronunciation: [] or Tea-rah-vah-nitJerry Saltz (May 7, 2007)Conspicuous Consumption''New York Magazine''.) is a Thai contemporary artist residing in New York City, Be ...

, Fred Tomaselli, Cecilia Vicuña,

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 artist known for his large-scale slide and video projections on architectural facades and monuments. He has realized more than 80 such public projections in Australia, Austria, Canada, England ...

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

Martin Wong Martin Wong (; July 11, 1946 – August 12, 1999) was a Chinese-American painter of the late 20th century. His work has been described as a meticulous blend of social realism and visionary art styles. Wong's paintings often explored multiple ...

, and

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, ed ...

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