Exit Art is a non-profit cultural center established in 1982. Located in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan

Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan

Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton and Midtown West, is a neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City between 34th Street and 59th Street, from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River....

, New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, the two-story gallery exhibits contemporary visual art, installation, video, theater, and performance.

Jeanette Ingberman and Papo Colo

Papo Colo

Papo Colo is an artist. He was born in Puerta de Tierra, Puerto Rico. He lives and works in New York City and in El Yunque rainforest in Puerto Rico. Papo Colo is an interdisciplinary artist, whose work ranges from performance, theater and installation art to painting, writing, and graphic design...

 founded Exit Art as an alternative exhibition space

Alternative exhibition space

An alternative exhibition space is a location, et al. other than the normal professional venues, for the exhibition of artwork to the public. Located in places which have been converted, such as a store front empty space into an exhibit space, for an organized assembly of artworks from an...

. Beginning with “Illegal America,” the very first show at Exit Art, and continuing through to today, the gallery has focused on representing the underdog, dedicating shows to the exploration of ideas and people outside the political, social, sexual, and aesthetic mainstreams. Exit Art co-founder Jeanette Ingberman died August 24, 2011 from complications of leukemia.

Throughout its history, Exit Art has taken on many homes. It was one of the first galleries to move to SoHo

SoHo

SoHo is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, notable for being the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, and also, more recently, for the wide variety of stores and shops ranging from trendy boutiques to outlets of upscale national and international chain stores...

, setting up a space in 1982. In 2002, the gallery moved to its current location in Hell’s Kitchen.

The gallery has been lauded for its diverse and daring programming. The 1992 show “Fever” was declared to be one of the ten most important shows of the decade by Peter Plagens from Newsweek

Newsweek

Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...

, 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 have exhibited at Exit Art include Willie Birch, Chakaia Booker

Chakaia Booker

Chakaia Booker is an African American artist who was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1953.-Background:Booker received a Bachelor of Art in Sociology from Rutgers University in 1976. She then received her Master of Fine Arts from the City College of New York in 1993...

, Patty Chang

Patty Chang

Patty Chang was described as "one of our most consistently exciting young artists" by The New York Times in 2006. Originally trained as a painter, she is primarily known for her short films and videos and her performance art...

, Sue DeBeer, Jimmie Durham

Jimmie Durham

Jimmie Durham is an American-born sculptor, essayist and poet, currently living in Europe.-Life and work:Durham was born in Washington, Arkansas and became active in theatre, performance and literature related to the US civil rights movement in the 1960s. His first solo exhibition as a visual...

, Nicole Eisenman, Inka Essenhigh

Inka Essenhigh

Inka Essenhigh is a painter based in New York.Essenhigh studied at the Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio and the School of Visual Arts in New York ....

, Jane Hammond

Jane Hammond

Jane R. Hammond is an American artist who lives and works in New York City. She was influenced by the late composer John Cage. She collaborated with the poet John Ashbery, making 62 paintings based on titles suggested by Ashbery; she also collaborated with the poet Raphael Rubinstein.- Background...

, David Hammons

David Hammons

David Hammons is an African-American artist mostly known for his works in and around New York City during the 1970s and 1980s.Much of his work, including Spade with Chains , reflects his commitment to the civil rights and Black Power movements...

, Tehching Hsieh

Tehching Hsieh

Tehching Hsieh is a noted New York City-based performance artist; he has been called a “master” by fellow performance artist, Marina Abramović.-Early life:...

, Jerry Kearns, Julie Mehretu

Julie Mehretu

Julie Mehretu is an artist, best known for her densely-layered abstract paintings and prints. She lives and works in New York City...

, Shirin Neshat

Shirin Neshat

Shirin Neshat شیرین نشاط is an Iranian visual artist who lives in New York. She is known primarily for her work in film, video and photography.-Background:Neshat's parents were upper middle-class...

, Roxy Paine

Roxy Paine

Roxy Paine is an American artist. He was educated at both the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico and the Pratt Institute in New York....

, Adrian Piper

Adrian Piper

Adrian Margaret Smith Piper is a first-generation conceptual artist and analytic philosopher who was born in New York City and lived for many years on Cape Cod, Massachusetts before emigrating from the United States...

, Ursula von Rydingsvard

Ursula von Rydingsvard

Ursula von Rydingsvard born in Deensen, Germany is a sculptor who has been working in Brooklyn, New York for the past 30 years. She received her MFA from Columbia University in 1975 after which time she started to work with cedar, a material through which she has explored a wide range of...

, Juan Sanchez, Rirkrit Tiravanija

Rirkrit Tiravanija

Rirkrit Tiravanija is a contemporary artist residing in New York. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1961. His installations often take the form of stages or rooms for sharing meals, cooking, reading or playing music; architecture or structures for living and socializing are a core element...

, Fred Tomaselli

Fred Tomaselli

Fred Tomaselli is an American artist. He is best known for his highly detailed paintings on wood panels, combining an array of unorthodox materials suspended in a thick layer of clear, epoxy resin...

, Cecilia Vicuña, Krzysztof Wodiczko

Krzysztof Wodiczko

Krzysztof Wodiczko, born April 16th 1943, is an artist renowned for his large-scale slide and video projections on architectural facades and monuments...

, David Wojnarowicz

David Wojnarowicz

David Wojnarowicz was a painter, photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, and activist who was prominent in the New York City art world of the 1980s.-Biography:...

, and Martin Wong

Martin Wong

Martin Wong was a U.S. painter of the late twentieth century.-Early years:Wong was born in Portland, Oregon and raised in the Chinatown district of San Francisco, California. He studied ceramics at Humboldt State University, graduating in 1968...

.

Jeanette Ingberman died from complications of leukemia on August 23, 2011.