29 years of art and activism on Rivington Street

ABC No Rio—art gallery, performance space, and “collection of collectives” since 1980—made its home on Rivington Street during the bad old days of the Lower East Side, before it was colonized by tea parlors, hipster hotels, and sneaker boutiques. 

The organization grew out of the 1980 Real Estate Show, during which 30 or so artists occupied an abandoned building on Delancey Street and staged an exhibit. The show lasted a day before the city shut it down. 

Tags: ABC No Rio, art galleries on the Lower East Side, delancey street, East Village Eye, Lower East Side in the 1980s, Rivington Street 1980s, The Real Estate Show