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Mary-Ann Monforton arrived in New York in 1974 settling into the East Village when it was still in the depths of decay. It did not take long for her to become part of the lively downtown art world with its parties, clubs and openings. There were a variety of short-lived jobs before…

Robert Colescott’s gaudily colored, densely packed, transgressive, cartoon-like paintings continue to garner surprising success. …

Stefan Eins’s storefront at 3 Mercer Street pointedly called itself a store, not a gallery.  Doubling as Eins’s illegal living quarters with a bed hidden behind a screen, the space (which operated from 1974 – 1979) epitomized the provocative DIY populism that made Downtown New York such a creative cauldron in the 1970s.

Jean-Michel Basquiat has a big presence on Gallery 98 in part because Marc H. Miller, the founder of the site, knew Basquiat, and conducted the very first interview with him in November 1982. …

As much inventor as artist, de Montebello developed a new type of camera that produced individual transparencies each consisting of 2,644 separate exposures. When such a transparency is seen through a “lens-viewing screen” (another invention of de Montebello’s), the multiple exposures merge into a single 3-D image that changes depending on…

In the 1960s and 1970s Ray Johnson was a familiar presence at art events handing out photocopy announcements with unusual designs, and collecting addresses for future mail-art networking. Artistically, Johnson can be classified as part of the Fluxus and Conceptual art movements, but his hard to decipher, sui generis messaging,…

Given the cautious nature of today’s art world it’s refreshing to remember a time when museum’s actually courted controversy. The Brooklyn Museum must have suspected there would be trouble when they brought Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection to New York in 1999.

Opening an art gallery in the 1980s was easy. Rents were low and there was no shortage of talented artists looking for places to show. In hindsight, it’s surprising to see how many now historic exhibitions were held in small, raw spaces run by neophyte dealers on a shoestring budget. The art world was ready for new things. All it…

One of the most conspicuous developments in downtown New York in the late 1970s was the decision by many young artists to start making low- budget, narrative films. This was part of a broader embrace of popular media, as many of these filmmakers were also active in rock bands.

The recent announcement that Metro Pictures art gallery will close at the end of 2021 stirs memories about how this once small gallery, founded in 1980 by Janelle Reiring and Helene Winer, got off to a roaring start with a quick succession of exhibitions featuring now famous artists whose work continues to command art-world respect. Countering…

Gallery 98 has a special connection to the artist group Collaborative Projects Inc. (COLAB).  Old announcement cards, flyers and early multiples by artists connected to the group make up a significant part of our inventory.

In the same celebratory spirit as Great Day in Harlem, the famous group portrait of jazz musicians, Tea Party at the Algonguin Hotel salutes women artists as a newly empowered creative force. This iconic image was created to promote Show of Strength, a benefit exhibition for MADRE, an organization working with women to address humanitarian needs around the…