Receipt of Delivery is a weekly series featuring Bay Area exhibition mailers selected from the SFMOMA Research Library’s collection of artists’ ephemera.
Sabina Ott / Michael Intriere poster, n.d., design: Sabina Ott, 17 in. x 11 in. (43.18 cm x 27.94 cm)
The name A.R.E. was open to interpretation, encouraged in fact by a chalkboard at the stairs. This was apt for a space that was interested in the present moment, resistant to being fixed and going on the path toward institutionalization taken by the first wave of alternative spaces in the 1970s. Artists for Revolution in the Eighties is how A.R.E. was best known and listed on the group calendars (example at bottom) produced by several underground art and spaces in San Francisco circa 1980 including Jetwave, Inc. (next door), Club Foot and Club Generic to cross-promote their shows and events.
In June, A.R.E., Inc. co-founders Dna Hoover and Glen Scantlebury were joined by several core members including Jo Babcock, Simone Simon, and Karen Yandow for a fun conversation/presentation about their non-profit space and revisiting the energetic mid-Market 1980s art and music scene. It was one of the important events that were organized as part of Streetopia at The Luggage Store Gallery.
A large contingent of the A.R.E. artists and audience were San Francisco Art Institute students and fellow recent grads. In speaking with Hoover, any artist who held a show could be on the Board, which was admittedly not an easy model for success, “but we didn’t want success, just a place to show art.” The first year at the live/work space at 1141 Market Street (1980) featured exhibitions across media, including a regular one-hour show on the public access Channel 25 of video work by artists like Ant Farm, Max Almy, Tony Labat among others as well as live performances by Randy Hussong, DNA among others. The following selection of A.R.E. mailers includes the Video/Sound Bar, a collaboration between Scantlebury and Jan Heyneker, which turned the gallery on 513 Valencia Street (1981-83) into a bar once a month to show video and performance art while making a little money selling beer to keep the space open. They invited guest curators like Dale Hoyt and Marshall Webber to periodically program as well as took a version of the model down to LA to Al’s Bar during the fall of 1982. As Scantlebury reflected, “The place would get packed with video artists bringing their latest work and arguing who got to play theirs first… and if a piece went on too long, the collective voice said change the channel!” They introduced the format of the Video Drive-ins in a parking lot next door to their final space at 345B Folsom (1983-84). The last show was an election night “cry-along” as Ronald Reagan was elected for a second term.
Rachel Orkin, Clare Radigan, Karyn Yandow, 1982 poster, 11 in. x 14 in. (27.94 cm x 35.56 cm)
N.O. Show at A.R.E., Inc., 1982, 8 1/2 in. x 11 in. (21.59 cm x 27.94 cm)
The N.O. Show (National Offense), October -November 1982, organized by Jo Babcock and Paul Hasegawa at A.R.E., Inc., La Mamelle, Inc., South of Market Cultural Center, San Francisco; Fashion Moda, Ninth Street Studio, New York; James Turcotte Gallery, Los Angeles
Politics for the Rest of Us, 1982, 11 in. x 8 1/2 in. (27.94 cm x 21.59 cm)
Soul Temples, Helen Holt and Tom Patrick, 1982, flyer, 11 in. x 8 1/2 in. (27.94 cm x 21.59 cm); Landshut, Jeff Stoll and Molly Thomas, 1982, flyer, 14 in. x 8 1/2 in. (35.56 cm x 21.59 cm)
Recent Works by Barbara Johnson, Anne Reiniger, Karyn Yandow, June 16-28, 1980, A.R.E. 1141 Market Street, postcard, 4 in. x 6 in. (10.16 cm x 15.24 cm)
Left: Linda Gottesfeld / Barbara Friedman, 1980; Right: More, More, 1980; each card: 4 1/2 in x 6 in. (11.43 cm x 15.24 cm)
Left: Color Mechanics: Photographs by Jo Babcock, Mary Lou Fortuna, Chris Roche September 15-27, 1980 postcard, 4 1/4 in. x 5 1/2 in. (10.8 cm x 13.97 cm); caption: “Two young amateur photographers, Leopold Mannes and Leopold Godowsky, Jr., musicians by profession, invented the first truly effective color process, Kodachrome, after years of research that began in their parents’ bathrooms and ended in the Kodak Research Laboratories. This 1922 picture shows them in a makeshift lab setup in a New York Hotel” ; Ruth Kahn – Paintings / Peggy Simon – Paintings / Tom Curtis – installation, May 5-12, 1980, postcard, 4 1/2 in. x 5 1/2 in. (11.43 cm x 13.97 cm)
Five or Six Nights at the Hotel Utah, 1982, poster, 17 in. x 11 in. (43.18 cm x 27.94 cm); Artists/musicians: Kal Beriones & Linda Clevanger, Charles Berwith, C.F. Players, The Cooties, Philip Huyser, Irwin Irwin, Michael Osterhout, Magdalen Pierrakos, Bruce Pollack, Max Roach Jazz Quartet, W, and Wild Cat Crew.
Tony Labat, September 1982 poster, 22 1/2 in. x 17 1/2 in. (57.15 cm x 44.45 cm)
Video/Sound Bar, 1982, card, 5 1/2 in x 8 1/2 in. (13.97 cm x 21.59 cm)
1982 video/sound bar flyer, 8 1/2 in. x 11 in. (21.59 cm x 27.94 cm); Video: Max Almy, Rike Anderson, Mark Gilliand, Doug Hall, Jim Haygood, Michael Interiere, Phil Hopper, Paul Nichols, Nina Peters, Glen Scantlebury, John Sanborn; Sound: Bonezone, Ben Bosse, Alan Brown, Carlos Hernandez, James Himself, Last Call, Gary Miles, Patrick Miller, Passengers, Bill Seaman, David West
Last Call, 1982 card, 4 3/4 in. x 6 1/2 in. (12.07 cm x 16.51 cm); 1983 Video Bar postcard invitation to new space at 345 B Folsom Street, San Francisco, live music by Paris Working, 4 in. x 6 in. (10.16 cm x 15.24 cm)
December 1980 flyer, 11 in x 8 1/2 in. (27.94 cm x 21.59 cm); Artists: Tomoaki Betsui, Joshua Gallup, Jan Heyneker, Peggy Simon, Joseph Smith, Robin Sulkes, Andrea Voinot, Alexandra Weems, and Karyn Yandow
September 1980 group calendar: A.R.E., Art Grip, Club Foot, Club Generic, Jetwave, Inc., 12 in. x 8 1/2 in. (30.48 cm x 21.59 cm)