#justabovemidtown

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Details and page spreads from 'Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces' on view through Feb 18 (ie, Saturday!) at @themuseumofmodernart ⁠ ⁠ This 184-page paperback is an archival deep dive with fresh interpretations of the legendary New York gallery and cultural laboratory that catalyzed collaboration among Black artists and their counterparts of diverse backgrounds.⁠ ⁠ Just Above Midtown, or JAM, was an art gallery and self-described laboratory for experimentation led by Linda Goode Bryant that foregrounded African American artists and artists of color. Open from 1974 to 1986, it was a place where an expansive idea of contemporary art flourished and debate was cultivated. The gallery offered early opportunities for artists recognized as pivotal figures in late-20th-century art—including David Hammons, Butch Morris, Senga Nengudi, Lorraine O’Grady and Howardena Pindell—as well as a nonhierarchical approach to art that welcomed artists without stylistic proscription.⁠ ⁠ Pictured here:⁠ 1. Janet Henry (obscured) and Linda Goode Bryant at Just Above Midtown, Fifty-Seventh Street. December 1974. Photograph by Camille Billops. Courtesy the Hatch-Billops Collection, NY.⁠ 2. Suzanne Jackson, Talk, 1976.⁠ 3. Gylbert Coker and David Hammons at Just Above Midtown, Fifty-Seventh Street. December 1974. Photograph by Camille Billops. Courtesy the Hatch-Billops Collection, NY.⁠ 4. Detail of photo of Senga Nengudi performing Air Propo at Just Above Midtown/Downtown, Franklin Street, 1981.⁠ 5. Detail of photo showing Barbara Mitchell (center right) and Tyrone Mitchell (far right) at the opening of the exhibition Synthesis, November 18, 1974. Photo by Camille Billops.⁠ ⁠ Catalog edited with text by @t.jeanlax & @taboadanumberthree Text by @ericguybooker @brandoneng__ @doctorkelliejones Yelena Keller, Marielle Ingram, @ellerustle ⁠ Interview with @lindagoodebryant by @thelmagolden⁠ ⁠ #justabovemidtown #jam #LindaGoodeBryant #blackhistory #blackhistorymonth https://www.instagram.com/p/CosKKzROQ8_/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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🙌🏿#ArtIsAWeapon This is fantastic news, and the @themuseumofmodernart #JustAboveMidtown exhibition was inspiring and empowering!!

"MoMA announces the establishment of the Just Above Midtown Archives in the Museum’s Archives, Library, and Research collections, following the Museum’s recent exhibition Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces. Started by #LindaGoodeBryant in 1974, Just Above Midtown (JAM) was an exhibition and creative space started by #Blackartists and curators that welcomed people of many generations and races in New York City until 1986. A hub for Conceptual art, abstraction, performance, and video, JAM proposed an expansive idea of #Blackart and encouraged thinking beyond its commercialization. The exhibition used archival photos, videos, and other contextual historical material from the #JAMArchives to give visitors a sense of the alternative model of art it championed to respond to a society in need. As a part of MoMA’s collection, the JAM Archives will be available for activation in the Museum’s galleries and for consultation and research at MoMA by curators, art historians, artists, journalists, researchers, students, and the public."

Reposted from @t.jeanlax “Artists’ imaginations and creativity shaped and made JAM what it was and what it continues to be today, fresh and alive. After 50 years in storage, the JAM archive has a home at MoMA where it can continue to energize, challenge, and inspire current and future generations of artists and those of us who are fortunate to engage and experience their work.” —Linda Goode Bryant 💐

S/o @michelleelligott chief of moma archives library and research collections who co-led on the establishment of the jam archives 💫

🎶: Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris Conduction® Conducted and conceived by #VernonReid, played by #GregTate’s Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber including Shawn Banks, Lewis “Flip” Barnes, Lisala Beatty, Jason Tobias DiMatteo, Chris Eddleton, Leon Gruenbaum, Bruce Mack, Jared Michael Nickerson, Shelley Nicole (first vocalist), Ms. Olithea (second vocalist), LaFrae Sci, Dave “Smoota” Smith, V. Jeffrey Smith, Mazz Swift, Ben Tyree, and J.S. Williams. Special guests: James Blood Ulmer and David A. Barnes. Projections: Allison Costa. Documentation by @orestionline Feb 9, 2023

#BlackGirlArtGeeks

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"Fuck them! Let's start a gallery" #LindaGoodeBryant founded pioneering #JustAboveMidtown Gallery in 1974 to recognise and provide a platform for work by African American contemporary #artists #blackart #WIA #inspiration #JAM #NewYork (at Tate Modern)

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TODAY!! Monday, January 30, at 4 PM, @artbookps1 Bookstore presents the book celebration and signing of 'Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces,' published by @themuseumofmodernart & @studiomuseum on the occasion of the exhibition at MoMA on view through February 18, 2023. ⁠ ⁠ Please join us for a round table conversation with Linda Goode Bryant, Kimberly Varella, Thomas (T.) Jean Lax and Lilia Rocio Taboada. ⁠ ⁠ Pre-order SIGNED books and RSVP for the event via linkinbio. RSVP is required due to limited capacity. This event will also be livestreamed on IG @artbookps1.⁠ ⁠ @lindagoodebryant @contentobject @t.jeanlax @taboadanumberthree⁠ @themuseumofmodernart @studiomuseum @artbook⁠ #JustAboveMidtown #JAM #MoMA #blackgallery #blackartists #blackartistspace https://www.instagram.com/p/CoDBgaoOKho/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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TOMORROW!! Monday, January 30, at 4 PM, @artbookps1 Bookstore presents the book celebration and signing of 'Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces,' published by @themuseumofmodernart & @studiomuseum on the occasion of the exhibition at MoMA on view through February 18, 2023. ⁠ ⁠ Please join us for a round table conversation with Linda Goode Bryant, Kimberly Varella, Thomas (T.) Jean Lax and Lilia Rocio Taboada. ⁠ ⁠ Pre-order SIGNED books and RSVP for the event via linkinbio. RSVP is required due to limited capacity. This event will also be livestreamed on IG @artbookps1.⁠ ⁠ @lindagoodebryant @contentobject @t.jeanlax @taboadanumberthree⁠ @themuseumofmodernart @studiomuseum @artbook⁠ #JustAboveMidtown #JAM #MoMA #blackgallery #blackartists #blackartistspace https://www.instagram.com/p/CoAS8uZuB4Z/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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This is where you want to be next week… #Repost @contentobject・・・I’ll be in NY next week for this exciting event. If you are there too, I hope you can join (be sure to rsvp with @artbook ]. Monday, January 30, 4pm EST: Please join Artbook @ MoMA PS1 Bookstore for the book celebration and signing of ‘Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces’ (MoMA/The Studio Museum in Harlem, 2022) published on the occasion of the exhibition at MoMA on view through February 18, 2023. Round table conversation with Linda Goode Bryant, Kimberly Varella, Thomas (T.) Jean Lax, and Lilia Rocio Taboada. Pre-order SIGNED books and RSVP for the event via Linkin.bio (artbookstores.com). RSVP is required due to limited capacity. This event will also be livestreamed on IG @artbookps1. Linda Goode Bryant is the founder of Just Above Midtown (JAM). With Kimberly Varella, designer of the exhibition catalogue, Thomas (T.) Jean Lax and Lilia Rocio Taboada, who co-organized the MoMA exhibition, this book celebration will revolve around the design of the book and the myriad of archival materials used in the book, including archives of Black artist publications involved with JAM. @lindagoodebryant @contentobject @t.jeanlax @taboadanumberthree @themuseumofmodernart @studiomuseum @artbook #JustAboveMidtown #JAM #MoMA #blackgallery #blackartists #blackartistspace https://www.instagram.com/p/CnxzzYas89k/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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A substantial review of 'Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces' at MoMA by @michaelttay @hyperallergic⁠ ⁠ "The show and publication capture JAM’s collaborative, community-oriented, crusading ethos and highlight Bryant’s enterprising nature and advocacy for Black artists. …⁠ ⁠ JAM established an art institution that is 'For Us By Us' before the term was popularized. 'Just Above Midtown' takes viewers through all the innovations, debts, and relationships necessary to create such a legacy while reminding that Linda Goode Bryant and her peers were working against the practices of institutions like MoMA. The exhibition itself is an experiment to see if JAM’s story and legacy are dynamic enough to retain their special sauce in the context of a historically white institution."⁠ ⁠ Read the full review via linkinbio.⁠ ⁠ Catalog published by @themuseumofmodernart ⁠ Edited with text by @t.jeanlax & @taboadanumberthree Text by @ericguybooker @brandoneng__ @doctorkelliejones Yelena Keller, Marielle Ingram, @ellerustle ⁠ Interview with @lindagoodebryant by @thelmagolden⁠ ⁠ #justabovemidtown #jam #LindaGoodeBryant https://www.instagram.com/p/CnmQq9TOf9C/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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🎨 #ArtIsAWeapon Do not miss "Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces" at @themuseumofmodernart through Feb. 18. I walked away deeply inspired by #LindaGoodeBryant 's vision, tenacity and commitment to supporting Black artists and showcasing their incredible work by any means necessary!

#BlackHistoryMonth

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📍MoMA

11 West 53 Street, #NYC

www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions

Reposted from @themuseumofmodernart

"Just Above Midtown—or JAM—was an art gallery and self-described laboratory led by Linda Goode Bryant that foregrounded African American artists and artists of color. Open from 1974 until 1986, it was a place where #Blackart flourished and debate was cultivated. The gallery offered early opportunities for artists now recognized as pivotal figures in late-20th-century art, including David Hammons, Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris, Senga Nengudi, Lorraine O’Grady, and Howardena Pindell. Nengudi has described JAM’s energy as 'vibrating,' a space where artists 'were given carte blanche, and there were no restrictions.' This exhibition presents artists and artworks previously shown at JAM in a wide range of mediums, and archival material and artist interventions contextualize the experimental ethos that defined the gallery.

Animated by Goode Bryant’s belief in trying to 'connect us to our innate ability to use what we have to create what we need,' the gallery took what was an expansive view at the time, embracing artists working with abstraction and inexpensive materials, video and performance, as well as self-taught and West Coast artists. It organized exhibitions that explored the idea of artistic and racial mixture, encouraged collaborations between artists, and, with a steady drumbeat, offered a platform for consistent critiques of the commercialization of art. As part of their mission to build relationships with the city’s art audiences, Goode Bryant and her collaborators incorporated talks and workshops into the gallery’s programming, including The Business of Being an Artist—aimed at artists’ professional development—and Brunch with JAM, a $5 lunch series featuring lectures by artists and museum curators.

#JustAboveMidtown #BlackGallerists #BlackGirlArtGeeks #BlackArtists #NYCArtScene #BlackArtVisionary

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"Even among the many seismic changes that the New York art world has experienced in the past 70 years or so, the legendary gallerist Linda Goode Bryant stands out. The founder of Just Above Midtown, or jam, the historic gallery that played host to an incredible range of artists of color from 1974 to 1986, Goode Bryant established what she called a 'laboratory'—a singular place where an artist’s meaning and intention could be expressed in an intellectually free ethos and without commercial interference, a down-home, do-it-yourself cosmos for performance art, happenings, and conceptual, rather than narrative—read: ideological—art. And what art! David Hammons, Howardena Pindell, Lorraine O’Grady, Senga Nengudi, and Lorna Simpson, among many others, had their first significant New York showings at jam, while volunteers such as the critic Greg Tate and the historian and curator Lowery Stokes Sims manned the phones.…" Read @hilton.als on 'Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces' @themuseumofmodernart via linkinbio.⁠ ⁠ Catalog edited with text by @t.jeanlax & @taboadanumberthree Text by @ericguybooker @brandoneng__ @doctorkelliejones Yelena Keller, Marielle Ingram, @ellerustle ⁠ Interview with @lindagoodebryant by @thelmagolden⁠ ⁠ #justabovemidtown #jam #LindaGoodeBryant https://www.instagram.com/p/CkOMqtiMHRz/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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"To say that Linda Goode Bryant did her utmost to keep the lights on at 'Just Above Midtown,' the groundbreaking gallery she founded in 1974 as a rebuke of the gatekeeping New York art world, would be an understatement. Look no further than the 350 or so facsimiles of bills, debt reminders, and eviction notices currently papering a wall of the @themuseumofmodernart home to an exhibition exploring the enormous impact and legacy of its 12-year run, on view through February 2023."⁠ ⁠ Read Stephanie Eckardt's very substantial review of 'Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces' @wmag via linkinbio⁠ ⁠ Catalog edited with text by @t.jeanlax & @taboadanumberthree Text by @ericguybooker @brandoneng__ @doctorkelliejones Yelena Keller, Marielle Ingram, @ellerustle ⁠ Interview with @lindagoodebryant by @thelmagolden⁠ ⁠ #justabovemidtown #jam #LindaGoodeBryant https://www.instagram.com/p/CkLlk05skbw/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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'Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces' is simply excellent. ⁠ ⁠ Read @artnews senior editor @alexgreenberger ⁠ The Museum of Modern Art’s new exhibition about the short-lived Just Above Midtown gallery is that rare and special thing: a show that promises to expand our understanding of art history and actually succeeds in doing so. The portion of art history that interests this show’s curator, Thomas (T.) Jean Lax, is a very small slice: New York during the ’70s and ’80s, which continues to hold a grip on the public imagination.⁠ ⁠ But do not come expecting to see works by art stars like Keith Haring, Jeff Koons, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, because you won’t find any of that here. Instead, you’ll find Senga Nengudi’s delicate, beguiling sculptures formed from sand-filled stockings, which droop down from ceilings and walls. You’ll find Janet Olivia Henry’s installations composed of toys and tiny trinkets; one is meant to recall an uncomfortable studio visit, with the artist’s stand-in being a doll version of the Star Trek character Uhura. You’ll find Randy Williams’s accumulations of objects as diverse as a condom, a ruler emblazoned with a Village Voice logo, a Ronald Reagan postcard, and more, which he then affixed to wooden board and then placed alongside the repeated word “AIDS.”…⁠ ⁠ Read more via linkinbio.⁠ ⁠ Exhibition catalog out now! Edited with text by @t.jeanlax & @taboadanumberthree Text by @ericguybooker @brandoneng__ @doctorkelliejones Yelena Keller, Marielle Ingram, @ellerustle ⁠ Interview with @lindagoodebryant by @thelmagolden⁠ ⁠ #justabovemidtown #jam #LindaGoodeBryant https://www.instagram.com/p/CjljaKeJ6zp/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Hot show, hot book. 'Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces' @themuseumofmodernart reviewed by Holland Cotter @nytimes⁠ ⁠ "When is a time capsule a treasure chest? When does a scrapbook read like a utopian syllabus? When is an art archive its own form of art? Answer: when the exhilarating exhibition 'Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces' opens at MoMA this Sunday.⁠ ⁠ The Manhattan gallery named Just Above Midtown debuted in 1974, an inopportune moment for a start-up. New York’s economy was scraping bottom; infrastructurally, the town was a mess. The gallery itself had scant financial backing, yet was setting up shop on 57th Street, in what was still, at the time, art’s commercial Gold Coast, a few blocks north of MoMA.⁠ ⁠ There was another, potentially intractable obstacle to success: The new gallery was African American-owned and run. And, as such, it was the first of its kind to plant a flag inside the gated community that was and (despite surface signs otherwise) still is a white New York art world.…"⁠ ⁠ Read the full review via linkinbio.⁠ ⁠ Exhibition catalog releases November 1.⁠ ⁠ Catalog edited with text by @t.jeanlax & @taboadanumberthree Text by @ericguybooker @brandoneng__ @doctorkelliejones Yelena Keller, Marielle Ingram, @ellerustle ⁠ Interview with @lindagoodebryant by @thelmagolden⁠ ⁠ #justabovemidtown #jam #LindaGoodeBryant https://www.instagram.com/p/Cja74G5uySu/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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“The energy was just oozing out the door,” @senganengudi recalled of Just Above Midtown Gallery, known as JAM. “It was like a magnet would pull people in because there was always something going on.”⁠ ⁠ Read @invisible.flaneuse on 'Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces,' opening at @themuseumofmodernart Oct 9 and releasing in catalog form Oct 25, @nytimes⁠ ⁠ "JAM was founded by the artist and social activist Linda Goode Bryant in 1974 at 50 West 57th Street. Over the next 12 years and in three locations, it would become an incubator for some of the most important Black avant-garde artists of the 20th century. More than just an art gallery, the artist Lorraine O’Grady has written, it was 'a place as much as a world, a place where people ate together, discussed and argued, drank and smoked together, collaborated on work, slept together, pushed each other to go further, and partied ’til the cows came home.'"⁠ ⁠ More via linkinbio.⁠ ⁠ Catalog edited with text by @t.jeanlax & @taboadanumberthree Text by @ericguybooker @brandoneng__ @doctorkelliejones Yelena Keller, Marielle Ingram, @ellerustle ⁠ Interview with @lindagoodebryant by @thelmagolden⁠ ⁠ #jam #justabovemidtown https://www.instagram.com/p/Cip0ZEquARZ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=