September 14 – December 8, 2012
Hunter College Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery
68th St. and Lexington Ave, New York, NY
In June of 1980, a mass exhibition took over a pre-tourist trap Times Square. Known as the “Times Square Show,” over 100 artists crammed into what was once a massage parlor to exhibit their work. “We were all trying to pull art out of the galleries and onto the street,” explains Tom Otterness, one of the artists and organizers involved in the original show. “The importance of the Times Square location, I think, goes back to the atmosphere on the street,” Otterness continues. “To walk 42nd Street was to see pop culture at the level of three-dollar movies, blaxploitation films, porno shops, hookers, gangs, and drugs… it allowed us to talk about the underbelly of culture.”
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