98 Bowery

The page for 98bowery.com This page is your portal to 98 Bowery and Gallery 98. Miller

The Bowery from 1969 to 1989 was a low-rent refuge for artists and free spirits willing to tolerate the alcoholics and homeless men who lived on the street. Those were exciting years and my top floor loft at 98 Bowery provided a ring-side seat to much of the action taking place in the East Village and Lower East Side during one of its most creative periods. A few years back I created the website 98bowery.com an account of this period remembered through art and photographs that I accumulated at the time. More recently I added Gallery.98bowery.com an online gallery for collectors who want to own original art and ephemera from this era. Our postings here will keep you up-to-date on new additions to these websites and more broadly on news and events connected to the art and music culture of downtown New York in the 1970s and 80s.

- Marc H.

04/03/2026

Robin calls from The Underground nightclub, NYC, c. 1983.

I saved all my message machine tapes from the ‘80s and have been digitizing them. Here’s one from the batch.

04/02/2026

Our 1980s Amsterdam polaroids are on view at Bar San Francisco, Zeedijk

In 1980, Marc H Miller and Bettie Ringma started photographing people in the bars of Amsterdam along the Zeedijk. These now famous photos, which are in the collection Stadsarchief Amsterdam, catalogued an era before cellphones and gentrification. They will be exhibited at Bar San Francisco, Zeedijk 40 on April 16th

In 1980 begonnen Marc H Miller en Bettie Ringma mensen te fotograferen in de bars van Amsterdam
langs de Zeedijk. Deze nu beroemde foto’s, die zich bevinden in de collectie Stadsarchief Amsterdam, catalogiseren een tijdperk vóór mobiele telefoons en gentrificatie. Ze zullen op 16 april worden tentoongesteld in Bar San Francisco, Zeedijk 40

02/11/2026

In the early 1970s, artist Marc H. Miller turned away from the cold aridity of much conceptual practice and becoming more interested in people - their thoughts, behaviour, concealed lives. He began to recruit participants to whom he gave prompts - ‘What’s Your Greatest Fear?’, ‘Respond to the Word ‘Man’’, ‘How Much Money Are You Carrying?’ Their responses required them to write short answers, draw pictures, take photographs. He in turn shot photo portraits of them. In this rare presentation, Miller will reveal a time capsule of a lost New York, of the way people looked and thought and acted fifty years ago. Voyeurism is part of its enduring appeal - ‘Draw a P***s and Vagina’, a series that involved 100 participants of all ages; ‘Unforgettable Moments’ (in collaboration with art therapist Bettie Ringma), a collection of over 30 drawings and tape-recorded stories by people who had experienced wars, robberies, life-threatening fires.

MARC H. MILLER is an artist, curator, writer, publisher and archivist. He is the founding director of the art ephemera specialists Gallery 98. More information about his work can be found at 98bowery.com

THE COLLOQUIUM FOR UNPOPULAR CULTURE (est. 2007): falling and laughing...

Non-NYU guests must RSVP for Bobst Library entry: [email protected]

02/10/2026

What’s Your Greatest Fear? Long Island Women Respond, and Other Works, 1972-81

An Artist Talk by Marc H Miller

WHEN: Saturday, February 21, 2:30pm
WHERE: Immersion Room, 7th Floor, NYU Bobst Library, 70 Washington Square South

Free and open to the public. Non-NYU guests must RSVP for Bobst Library entry: [email protected]

In the early 1970s, artist Marc H. Miller turned away from the cold aridity of much conceptual practice and becoming more interested in people - their thoughts, behaviour, concealed lives. He began to recruit participants to whom he gave prompts - ‘What’s Your Greatest Fear?’, ‘Respond to the Word ‘Man’’, ‘How Much Money Are You Carrying?’ Their responses required them to write short answers, draw pictures, take photographs. He in turn shot photo portraits of them. In this rare presentation, Miller will reveal a time capsule of a lost New York, of the way people looked and thought and acted fifty years ago. Voyeurism is part of its enduring appeal - ‘Draw a P***s and Vagina’, a series that involved 100 participants of all ages; ‘Unforgettable Moments’ (in collaboration with art therapist Bettie Ringma), a collection of over 30 drawings and tape-recorded stories by people who had experienced wars, robberies, life-threatening fires.

MARC H. MILLER is an artist, curator, writer, publisher and archivist. He is the founding director of the art ephemera specialists Gallery 98. More information about his work can be found at 98bowery.com

Non-NYU guests must RSVP for Bobst Library entry: [email protected]

01/30/2026

Steve, office manager, c. 1974 (captions written by him)

In the ‘70s, I asked people if I could take photos of their daily life and they could write captions about them. These were later exhibited as a conceptual art series. Nowadays, they’re kind of like an early version of Instagram or Facebook.

01/28/2026

Lawyer, c. 1974 (captions written by him)

In the ‘70s, I asked people if I could take photos of their daily life and they could write captions about them. These were later exhibited as a conceptual art series. Nowadays, they’re kind of like an early version of Instagram or Facebook.

01/26/2026

My friend Jeff in Monterey, c. 1974 (captions written by him)

In the ‘70s, I asked people if I could take photos of their daily life and they could write captions about them. These were later exhibited as a conceptual art series. Nowadays, they’re kind of like an early version of Instagram or Facebook.

01/14/2026

Describe yourself, c. 1972

Back in the 1970s, I did a series of conceptual art pieces using participants. In this one, I asked them to describe themselves

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