Manitoba Museum of Finds Art
April 28 - June 2, 2012
Opening Reception & Book Release, Saturday, April 28, 1-4PM
Special conversation between Alberta Mayo (Director) and Lowell Darling (Dudley Finds) moderated by Tanya Zimbardo (Assistant Curator of Media Arts, SFMOMA) at 2PM.
"It all started with Finds. Dudley Finds. He was the Head of the Fat City School of Finds Art. His big finds was the "This is Your Life" sign somewhere in Hollywood. To greet him, Fanny Footstar and I went to the airport and held up a twelve foot long sign saying "Lelcome Wowell." The graduation ceremony was held April 17, 1974. The staff of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art who didn't have masters' degrees received Masters of Finds Art from the Fat City School. Along with the graduation ceremony, the mooseum was born. It was first located in Room 305 of the Veterans' Building in San Francisco.
"The first exhibition was held in 1975: photographs by Joel Sackett. Perhaps it was an insubordinate act, hanging "unsanctioned art" in a technically non-viewing area of the larger museum. After not being fired, I decided to continue. The idea was to give artists who would not ordinarily have an exhibition in the SFMOMA a place to be seen."
-- Alberta Mayo, MMOFA Director, from the introduction to Manitoba Museum of Finds Art, 2012
As assistant to SFMOMA Director Henry Hopkins, Alberta Mayo turned her office -- his waiting room -- into a delightfully delinquent treasure known as the Manitoba Museum of Art. Decades after the physical space closed its doors, Will Brown is pleased to present the complete holdings of MMOFA, including artworks (found and made), ephemera, correspondence, and an extensive army of moose-themed objects.
Highlights include: mirror submitted by Bruce Conner for the first ever Bruce Conner Look Alike Contest and Bake Sale; atomic bomb hotpad; glass jar of cotton balls used to clean Jean Arp sculpture; glow in the dark MMOFA key chain; pencil used by Sol Lewitt to make MMOFA wall drawing; tree bark with carved initials; Henry Hopkins' rolodexes; fake butter; fake teeth; small flocked moose; burnt package for Henry Hopkins (never opened); mature discretion sign; Clyfford Still drawing; diploma; Lynn Hershman's "game"; 4th Annual Chloe Footstar Potluck Memorial Picnic Announcement; special members gift; fashion advertisement photographed in Rauschenberg retrospective with Tyrone Brue, security guard, signed by Tyrone.
*Special 12PM reception for current MMOFA Members in Good Sitting
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