V. Back on Bowery, 1981 - 85
When Bettie and I returned to New York in summer 1980, we discovered that much had changed in the year we had been away. The East Village was now filled with art galleries and new clubs that were as much about art as music. Many of the people whom we knew from CBGB and the Punk Art exhibition were active in the evolving scene.
In 1982 Bettie and I mounted the exhibition “Unforgettable Moments Drawn by Real life People” at ABC No Rio, a raw alternative space founded by members of the artist group COLAB. These were busy years for me: I wrote a monthly column, "Miller's Memorabilia" for the East Village Eye; worked with Paul Tschinkel on ART/new york, a video magazine about art; and co-edited with Alan W. Moore the book ABC No Rio; The Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery (1985).
Vietnam veterans draw their war experiences. Feelings connected with killing, watching friends die, off-base diversions and returning home after the war are revealed in these "projective drawings" collected by Bettie Ringma and Marc H. Miller in 1981.
Telephone Answering Machine Messages, 1982 – 1987. Individually each message is a record of a specific person and moment. Together they form something more -- a sound portrait of my life in the 1980's composed of the voices of the people who were in it.
Marc H. Miller's East Village Eye column spotlighted with images and humor the excesses of the East Village art scene. Who's the fastest artist... Keith Haring, Sri Chimoy or Morris Katz? On view in New York: the Prinzhorn Collection of certifiably crazy artists. Get your picture with the world's most expensive painting at Sotheby's Auction House.
ART/new york, a Video Magazine on Art. The early history of an innovative video series that featured contemporary art exhibitions in New York and artist interviews. Account covers the years 1981-1985.
The online version of the 1985 book ABC No Rio Dinero: The Story of A Lower East Side Art Gallery, a much cited source about the New York art scene of the 1980s.