A Book About Colab (and Related Activities), edited by Max Schuman, Printed Matter, 2015. A second printing is now available through Printed Matter.
Fingerpaint Portraits by Cara Perlman – (some members of Colab). This is the reverse side of A Book About Colab’s double-sided, foldout book jacket. The new edition of the book features a variation of this unique dustjacket which unfolds into a poster.
Anyone studying the art of the late 1970s and 1980s will soon encounter the artist group Collaborative Projects Inc., best known simply as Colab. Established as a not-for-profit corporation in 1978, Colab’s original purpose was to provide artists with direct access to newly available government grants. But the group soon evolved into something more significant: an assembly committed to the principles of collectivity and social engagement whose innovative new approaches to the making and exhibiting of art helped to radically alter the traditional ways of the art world in the 1980s.
First published in 2015, Max Schuman’s A Book About Colab (and Related Activities) remains the most authoritative source of information about Colab. Originally based on a 2011 exhibition at Printed Matter, the book benefits from the direct input of leading Colab members. Now after years of being out-of-print, A Book About Colab has finally been reprinted. The new edition can be purchased directly from Printed Matter.
As the co-editor of the Colab publication ABC No Rio Dinero:The Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery (1985), Gallery 98’s founder Marc H. Miller has strong connections to Colab, and much of the ephemera featured on the site involves the group. Our online exhibition Collecting Colab spotlighted Colab’s most memorable moments — the Times Square Show (1980), the Real Estate Show (1980), the A. More Stores (1980-84), and the affiliated exhibition spaces Fashion Moda and ABC No Rio. We have also showcased Colab artists Cara Perlman, Christy Rupp, Stefan Eins, and Tom Otterness. Our site also features treasures by other members including Becky Howland, Alan W. Moore, Peter Fend, Kiki Smith, Jenny Holzer, and Walter Robinson.
Colab Membership Contact List, early 1980s
COLAB Members Contact List, early 1980s
Active from 1978 to the mid-1980s, Colab was a loosely organized artist group that included a changing nexus of between fifty to sixty members. Anyone could join the group if they attended three consecutive meetings.
New Cinema
New Cinema, poster for Eric Mitchell’s Kidnapped, 1978
Poster
Size: 8.5 x 11 inches
Sold
Many of Colab’s earliest members were filmmakers eager to obtain access to equipment and to find collaborators for their film projects. Colab helped fund the New Cinema, a short-lived, artist-run screening room on St. Mark’s Place that mostly featured narrative Super 8 films.
X Motion Picture Magazine
Magazine
Size: 11.5 x 14 inches
Available — $200
For the most part, Colab funded collaborative projects that were open to all members and friends. Around 75 people contributed to this issue of X Motion Picture Magazine. Contributors could do whatever they wanted, and had complete control of their pages.
Fashion Moda
Fashion Moda, signed offset poster designed by Stefan Eins, 1980
Signed poster
Size: 13 x 13.5 inches
Available — $350
Fashion Moda, an alternative art space in the South Bronx founded by Colab member Stefan Eins, provided Colab artists with the opportunity to work outside the downtown art bubble. It also served as an important early entry point for graffiti-based, outer-borough artists wanting to expand into the mainstream art world.
Real Estate Show
Real Estate Show, xerox flyer designed by Becky Howland, 1980
Xerox flyer
Size: 8.5 x 11 inches
Sold
This art exhibition exploring real estate abuses took place in an abandoned city owned building that a group of Colab artists broke into and temporarily squatted. The police quickly evicted the artists, but there was an unexpected benefit when the city offered the artists a nearby space that became the gallery ABC No Rio Dinero.
Times Square Show
Exotic Events, Times Square Show Calendar, poster designed by Beth B & Scott B, Tom Otterness, 1980
Poster
Size: 17 x 20.5 inches
Available — $500
Colab sponsored this theme exhibition located in a rented Times Square building. Anyone could contribute to the exhibition, which also included a full schedule of performances, films and music. The Times Square Show was heralded in the press as The First Radical Art Show of the ’80s, and it still retains its reputation as one of the most important shows of that period.
The A.More Store
Flyer for the Opening of The A. More Store at 529 Broome, 1980
Flyer
Size: 8.5 x 14 inches
Sold
A Colab priority was to maximize opportunities for artists and to promote art that was accessible to a broader public. Colab-sponsored A. More Stores (1980 – 84) were usually scheduled around the holiday gift-giving season and featured low price multiples.
ABC No Rio Dinero
ABC No Rio The Island of Negative Utopia, silkscreen poster by Kiki Smith, The Kitchen, 1983
Silkscreen poster
Size: 17.5 x 22.5 inches
Available — Price on Request
Located in a run-down section of the Lower East Side, the Colab affiliated art space ABC No Rio has been the home for theme exhibitions, performance, poetry, hardcore music and political activism. Still operating today, No Rio will soon be housed in a new building.
Talk is Cheap street poster project
Set of 26 posters
All sized: 23 x 35 inches
Available — Price on Request
By the mid-1980s Colab had received a lot of publicity and its meetings began attracting many new artists. “Talk is Cheap” was a street poster project that involved 47 artists.
