Harlem was never an isolated neighborhood. For most of the 20th century it was the center of African-American life in the United States, a mecca that attracted Black people from all around the country and the world.

Collectors of art ephemera who focus on the career of a favorite artist highly prize cards and flyers that include a portrait of the artist.  Ephemera of this kind is surprisingly rare as most galleries and museums prefer to promote the works being exhibited rather than the artist. Gallery…

Edit DeAk was an art enthusiast who truly got involved. Art-Rite (1973-78), the low budget newsprint magazine that she founded and co-edited with Walter Robinson, was one entry into the art world.

This early work by West Coast performance artist Chris Burden pushed all the limits.  Burden is best known for SHOOT (1971) a performance in which he was shot in his left shoulder with a rifle from 15 feet away.

There are many reasons to collect art ephemera. This selection from the Gallery 98 inventory features prime items from the 1970s and 80s that skirt the lines traditionally separating art, entertainment, politics and everyday life, and offer a wide variety of choices. Andy Warhol, Happy Birthday Holly, 1986 Palladium, Andy Warhol, Happy…

As we move into this new year with everything in flux it is more important than ever to remember our past. Art ephemera can help keep what is behind us alive. How will people remember the artists and art events of the last century? These new additions to the Gallery 98 provide fodder for thought. Ray Johnson’s…

The art world of the 1970s, 80s and 90s is the focus of Gallery 98. These decades were noteworthy not only for art, but also for the vast amount of printed art ephemera that was a by-product of the display and marketing of the art. Each week we…

The art ephemera of Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960 – 1988) is of special interest driven not only by his phenomenal success but also by the way his work brings together different segments of the art world.  Cards show him exhibiting in nightclubs, pop-up spaces and in the toniest art galleries.

In the late 1970s young artists aspired to work outside the traditional art world. They wanted to be more in touch with life, reach new audiences, and achieve success with low-priced art that could appeal to a mass audience.

Gallery 98 is excited with the recent acquisition of two large boxes of announcement cards, posters and other art ephemera from the estate of art critic Edit DeAk (1948-2017).  As a co-founder of the influential DIY newsprint magazine ART-RITE, and as a writer for Artforum and other periodicals, DeAk was at the…

The best kinds of art ephemera not only evoke a specific art event but also capture broader cultural trends. The flyer above announcing an exhibition of hand-notated scores and a series of concerts by composer Steve Reich at a leading Soho gallery, is a reminder that the concept of “minimalism” influenced…

Curiosity, a sense of wonder, and the belief that anything can be art are the elements that helped make Stefan Eins into an innovative art figure in the 1970s.  Born and raised in Austria, Eins came to NYC in 1967, and settled into a small storefront in Soho in 1972 when it was still a deserted manufacturing district. …

It doesn’t happen often, but every now and then an art-world story makes the cover of a popular magazine. This tendency probably accelerated after the advent of Pop Art, an art movement that made the art world more accessible and attractive to the general public.

The 1981 exhibition Beyond Words held in the fourth-floor gallery of the then super-trendy Mudd Club stands out as a conspicuous point in the long road that brought subway art to art-world legitimacy. Curated by Fab 5 Fred Braithwaite and Keith Haring, the exhibition lives on today through this brightly colored, silk-screen poster by John Sex, and a small, offset announcement card…

Among the works featured in the exhibition Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip Hop Generation at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (October 18 – May 16) is the videotape “Graffiti / Post Graffiti,” a rarely seen program first screened on the Learning Channel in 1984.

Some art ephemera ages especially well. One example is this vintage 1980 poster for “Dubbed in Glamour” advertising three nights of performances at the Kitchen in Soho. …

Gallery 98 offers different ways to explore our large inventory of gallery invitation cards, posters and catalogs. One popular option is to search by artist. More than 180 are listed on our “Artists’ Page” including David Hammons, Jenny Holzer, Joan Mitchell, William Pope.L,…

In 2000, Ephemera Press began to commission artists to create illustrated maps of historic New York City neighborhoods that spotlight the homes and hangouts of the famous artists, writers and musicians.

An article about endurance artist Tehching Hsieh in T: The New York Times Style Magazine inspired Gallery 98 to feature the 1980s performance art pioneer as the subject of this week’s email.

Gallery 98 features art and art ephemera connected to artists active in downtown New York in the 1960s to 90s. This was a time when artists were exploring their own real-life experiences, often creating works incorporating self-portraits and depictions of friends.

Website visitors can now explore Gallery 98’s large collection of vintage art ephemera using newly added sections devoted to the major art movements.  Gallery 98 is designed as an online resource for both collectors and researchers, and we are constantly working to improve our finding aids. See items from…

While the bread and butter for galleries has traditionally been the sale of high priced art to a few wealthy collectors, this market is most successful when the art is also appreciated by a larger, less-privileged audience of art enthusiasts.

Back in the 1980s nightclubs were not just places to drink and cruise. They were also an important venue for the city’s cultural scene, a gathering spot where artists, musicians, designers, writers, performers and filmmakers exchanged ideas and networked during one of NYC’s most creative periods.

There is still time to bid on items in the Washington Project for the Arts’ Benefit Auction on Artsy, ending on Thursday, August 13th at 6:30 PM. Of special interest are two unusual forays into portraiture by artists who participated in the WPA’s infamous Punk Art Exhibition (1978).

Neke Carson’s John Waters Closet Portrait must be one of the more unusual works in the Washington Project for the Arts’ Benefit Auction that is now open for online bidding at Artsy through August 13. Carson, a pioneering performance artist with links to Fluxus and Neo-Dada, is a true original who over his 50-year career has produced…

The benefit auction for the Washington Project for the Arts (already canceled twice because of Covid-19!!) will finally be open for online bidding at 6:30 pm today (Thursday July 30th) at Artsy. In celebration of the WPA’s 45th Anniversary, the auction features many of the artists who over the years exhibited at this important venue for contemporary art…

Artists in the 1980s had a lot to say but not necessarily with a work hanging on a wall. The downtown art space Franklin Furnace (founded by Martha Wilson in 1976) was one of the first galleries to recognize this reality with programming centered around performance art, artists books and other new formats.

For those who were part of the New York art world in the 1980s and attended the exhibitions and events featured on the art ephemera sold by Gallery 98, these mementos preserve not only art history but also personal memories.

What makes for a collectible gallery announcement card? The key quality is a powerful iconic image by a well-known artist that evokes the concerns of the particular time the exhibition took place.

Artist/documentarian Clayton Patterson’s recent article in the Village Sun adds a new perspective to some Keith Haring announcement cards in the collection of Gallery 98. Patterson has been a longtime advocate of artist Angel Ortiz (better known as LA2) who worked with Haring in the early 1980s but who is now increasingly excluded from the Haring story.

Some of the most desirable gallery announcement cards are those with a portrait of the featured artist. In this regard Franklin Furnaces’ Food for Thought card is an exceptional example of art ephemera because it displays two high profile artists, one on each side of the card.

Art ephemera – the advertising and promotional material created by galleries to publicize and sell art – is now a coveted collectible onto itself.  Collecting ephemera is a way to own vintage objects connected to famous artists, and at the same time, learn more about the history of art as it actually…

Dramatically sited amidst the ruins of Charlotte Street in the South Bronx, John Fekner’s 1980 murals –DECAY and BROKEN PROMISES — are the best known work of this early street artist noted for his use of stencils for a political purpose.

For those nostalgic for that still memorable fin-de-siècle moment in downtown New York when art, nightlife, fashion, politics and decadence mingled and thrived, the more than 5,000 items of paper ephemera from the 1970s – 90s posted online at Gallery 98 might be the perfect remedy.

Details Magazine, founded by Annie Flanders in 1982, is best known for its fashion coverage. Starting with the very first issue the magazine was brimming with creatively designed ads from small downtown boutiques and newly launched clothing lines.

Since going into lockdown six weeks ago Gallery 98 has been busy unpacking and sorting through thirty-three massive boxes containing the library of art critic Edit deAk (1948-2017).   Most of the boxes contained art books and gallery catalogues but about a quarter of them were filled with art magazines from all…

Gallery 98 has received and organized 33 boxes of art critic Edit deAk’s library, and are now selling vintage catalogues, books, and periodicals, in a $50 Lockdown Sale featuring important and rare items.

Gallery 98 offers the press kit from MoMA’s controversial 1984 exhibition, ‘Primitivism’ In 20th Century Art. The kit includes photos, press releases, and critical essays illuminating the exhibition’s cultural bias, a significant event in the discussion around diversity and multiculturalism in the art world.

Gallery 98’s recent acquisition of a large collection of books and ephemera from the library of art critic Edit deAk (1948-2017) brings to light many interesting art world stories.

Among the treasures that Gallery 98 discovered sorting through the boxes of books from the late art critic Edit deAk’s library was this signed offset print portfolio promoting Greer Lankton’s first exhibition at Civilian Warfare Gallery in May 1983.

Before being confined by quarantine, Gallery 98 was fortunate to have acquired the library of the late art critic Edit deAk (1948-2017). Edit Deák was a rebellious artistic teenager living in communist Budapest, Hungary who engineered her escape in the trunk of a car and made her way to New York.

When the Guerrilla Girls began wheat-pasting posters on walls near galleries and museums in downtown NY in the mid-1980s, they didn’t know what effect these posters would have on the art world nor exactly how long that effect would last.

For the last five years Gallery 98 has been marketing art ephemera, continuously posting new items online from our vast inventory of over 60,000 cards and posters. Art ephemera is not just for collectors – items that we have sold remain posted so that art researchers can continue to access the important information that…

Gallery 98’s recent acquisition of a large collection of Night and Details has put the spotlight on our extensive inventory of downtown periodicals from the 1970s and 80s.

Gallery 98 has just added a large bus-stop poster to its online exhibition on fashion photographer Bill Cunningham’s work for DETAILS Magazine from 1982-90.

Perusing Gallery 98’s inventory of thousands of announcement cards, posters and other art ephemera is like a trip through the history of art from the 1960s – 90s. Every art movement, gallery and artist is represented allowing visitors to explore the art that interests them the most.The traditional designation of…

Next month, the Brooklyn Museum will be celebrating New York’s most infamous nightclub of the 1970s with the exhibition Studio 54: Night Magic, from March 13 to July 5. One of the artists featured in the exhibition will be Anton Perich who frequently made photographs at Studio 54 and also published NIGHT, a…

For readers of the weekend style section of The New York Times Bill Cunningham (1929 – 2016) was a perennial favorite particularly appreciated for his weekly picture column On the Street, a sharp-eyed compendium of the fashion he encountered on the street.