The Times Square Show

For many artists the exhibition served as a forum for the exchange of ideas, a testing-ground for social-directed figurative work in progress, and a catalyst for exploring new political-artistic directions.

Elena Martinique writes in WideWalls magazine that The Times Square Show was the first art exhibition to overtly transcended the trappings of class and culture by bringing together people who would not necessarily come together under any other circumstances.

This article and Colab's DIY self-promotion drew a wide variety of audiences curious see an art show in the sordid Times Square area.

Most of the artists who participated in The Times Square Show came from Colab, White Columns, Fashion Moda or The Harlem Workshop.

Tom Otterness's half-skeleton/half-man painted plaster sculpture Symbolic Anatomy (1980) was placed in the front window next to where Jean-Michel Basquiat wrote Free Sex over the doorway (later somebody else spray-painted over it).

Included were Bobby G's Money Talks pins, Becky Howland's Love Canal Potatoes, Kiki Smith’s Bloody-Hand Ashtrays, Joseph Nechvatal's Nuclear War Table Placemats, Charlie Ahearn’s Three Card Monte Times Square Advertisement poster, Robin Winters’s Plaster Colab Portraits and Jenny Holzer’s Manifesto posters.