Artists Space

REALLIFE Magazine: 1979–1990

March 30 – May 12, 2007

Curated by Kate Fowle, REALLIFE: 1979–1990 looks at the decade through the lens of this publication and its extraordinary roster of contributors—including Richard Baim, Critical Art Ensemble, Jaime Davidovich, Mark Dion + Jason Simon, Kim Gordon, Group Material, David Hammons, Michael Hurson, Ray Johnson, Mike Kelly, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Robert Longo, Sherrie Levine, Allan McCollum, Paul McMahon, Adrian Piper, Richard Prince, Michael Smith, and Jim Welling.

A silhouette of a human head in profile is filled with a photograph of a woman looking directly at the camera, her arms outstretched either side of a dark scultpure of child
REALLIFE Magazine, First issue, March 1979. Artwork by Sherrie Levine. [A silhouette of a human head in profile is filled with a photograph of a woman looking directly at the camera, her arms outstretched either side of a dark scultpure of child's head. Text situated above the image reads, "REALLIFE Magazine, March 1979, $1."]

When Thomas Lawson and Susan Morgan started Real Life Magazine in 1979, they wanted to make a publication that would be “by and about artists.” The magazine’s first issue was made possible by an NEA grant in art criticism, awarded to Lawson through Artists Space. During the 1980s, Real Life Magazine attentively addressed current art and its influences while continuously speculating about culture and questioning politics.

REALLIFE MAGAZINE: 1979–1990 Exhibition Booklet

REALLIFE MAGAZINE: 1979–1990 Press Release